Naruto : Life in the Akatsuki
by NXSE
Summary: Naruto taken away from the leaf to rid the world off him by some shinobi of the leaf. He surprisingly gains a new partner and friend in the fox who grants him an ancient bloodline his father entrusted him with - the Rinne-Sharingan. Naruto is dragged into the Akatsuki and lives amongst crazy killers and lunatics with an overly protective Uchiha princess. -DISCONTINUED-
1. Chapter 1 Prologue

**Naruto : Life in the Akatsuki**

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 **Summary : AU : What if Naruto was kidnapped and tortured outside of the village walls? What if he was left for dead? What if the Uchiha princess who had killed off her own clan found him? What if she took him with her and kept him with her? How will Naruto's life be surrounded by almost insane and crazy S-rank criminals? How will his life be when he has an overprotective guardian with him who shields him but has inwardly fallen for his innocence?**

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 _ **Let's see the adventures unroll...**_

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 **NOTE : The chapter includes scenes of extreme torture and forms of mature content that are not suitable if you don't like it. So read it at your own discretion. That is why it has an M-rating. But nothing much too gruesome so not that hard but it is a bit dark alright.**

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 **Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto or any of the characters provided in the Naruto universe except the original characters I have woven myself.**

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 **Several miles outside of Konohagakure no sato...**

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 **Eight Years since the Kyuubi attack...**

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A group of ANBU jumped through various trees and as far away from the village as possible. Several other chunins and jounins too were with them. Each one of them were silent and to anyone other than them, the motives of the group were completely unclear. All one could discern as something suspicious was the small black back slung over one of the ANBU's shoulders.

"How far are we?" one of them asked to the ANBU. He stopped making everyone behind him halt and gazed back to see the great walls of Konoha nowhere in sight. He nodded to himself dropping the bag from his shoulder onto the ground. The bag fell unceremoniously to the ground from the large height of the tree. The bag fell down with a thud creating a bit of flowing dust from the height of the tall tree.

"We are far enough, just at the borders of Grass country. They are only barely neutral to us and will kill the boy most probably as soon as they see him so close to their borders. And with the regular patrols from Iwa..." he said and each one of them nodded with bright smiles. Finally they would rid the village of the scar that had plagued them for eight long years. The ANBU along with almost all of the rest started to jump back when one of them spoke up.

"Hey guys are we just going to leave that thing here like that?" he asked them making them all stop and look at the man curiously. The ANBU who had thrown the bag and was supposedly leading the group spoke up.

"Yes, that was the original plan, he would be killed as soon as the patrol teams from Grass or most probably Iwa come for their routine rounds and see him wearing a T-shirt with the Leaf symbol. Why, do you have anything that looks wrong to you?" he asked and the man nodded with a scowl making him even more curious.

"Of course did you forget what that _thing,_ did to us eight years ago?" he asked making everyone narrow their eyes at him and frown themselves.

"Are we just going to leave him like this and let him have a painful death? Don't you guys remember the pain we suffered eight years ago, on that accursed night." he asked angrily and all of them clenched their fists glaring at the small bag on the ground looking at the truth behind his words.

"The Yondaime gave us a chance when he sealed the demon in this pathetic human form. And today we have the chance to make the demon pay for everything it did to us. Why don't we have a little revenge before we leave him here? We can leave him at death's door and neither Iwa nor Grass will be foolish enough to run a medical checkup on the boy from the Leaf thus guaranteeing his death." he said and got nods from everyone beside the ANBU leader. They all watched his face and after a moment he nodded.

"You are right, he needs to pay for what he did. Today he will pay for his deeds before he dies." he said coldly making them all smile widely. One by one they dropped down surrounding the bag on the ground. They saw the bag move slightly and a chunin took out a kunai, cutting it open with a quick slash.

A small mop of sunshine blonde hair peeked out of the small black bag. A moment later his fair skin and small faint three whisker like birthmarks on each cheek were visible to all of them. He rubbed his head softly and his cerulean blue eyes looking around in innocent confusion peeked at the people surrounding him. His eyes scanned the unfamiliar place and these strange people making him even more confused. He saw the masked man and smiled. Those masked men always helped him whenever he was in trouble so he could ask him.

"Umm ANBU-san where am I?" he asked softly in his cute tiny angelic voice making many of them growl. Naruto didn't seem to hear them still rubbing his aching and dazed head from falling to the ground harshly.

"You are way outside the village and away from _our homes_." he said coldly making Naruto tilt his head to the side in confusion. He was sure he had slept in his room in the village the last he remembered after returning from practicing the little exercises they were given at the Academy.

"Which way is the village then? I need to get back or Iruka-sensei..." he was cut off when a harsh kick met his ribs and his small form flew into the air. His back collided harshly against the bark of the tree and a silent scream erupted from his throat in pain.

"How dare you act so innocent after making us all lose so much? I lost my son because of you that night and he was never able to see his childhood yet you enjoy the Academy _demon_!" the man who kicked him sneered in disgust with several glares at the huffing and wheezing boy on the ground.

"I still don't understand why the Hokage let you join the Academy, to let you have a chance at gaining back your strength again? But we'll take care of it today and fix his mistakes don't worry about it." another said laughing maniacally. Naruto grew scared from their faces and those eyes, he was sure they were going to hit him again and crawled slowly to the ANBU standing there quietly. He tugged the man's pants softly with scared and wide innocent eyes.

"ANBU-san please help me I'm scared." he said in a soft scared tone and the ANBU smirked behind his mask and nodded making Naruto smile. A moment later he screamed out in pain clutching his shoulder that now had a kunai lodged into it to the hilt. He fell back on his butt with little tears coming out of his eyes. He looked at the ANBU with even more frightened and scared eyes making him chuckle.

"Don't worry Naruto, today we will all help you really nicely." he said sweetly. Naruto sobbed as he heard all of them laugh and their cold looks on him. He got up and tried to run from between two chunins when two fists rammed into his stomach making him double over in pain. They threw his small body harshly back to the tree he collided with earlier with a sickening crunch. Naruto coughed and watched as all of them came closer making him cry softly.

"Please it hurts..." he whispered softly clutching is stomach when a jounin picked him up by the collar and smashed his head against the tree with a growl.

"Really does this hurt too?" he asked angrily and Naruto nodded innocently thinking he would stop now if he said yes. A fist collided with his cheek making his lip cut and bleed profusely. The man threw him in the middle of the circled group with a laugh.

"Let's each have our revenge on the demon guys." he said laughing and everyone laughed and nodded. They moved in closer to him, Naruto curled up into a ball knowing they wouldn't stop now and decided to just endure for the time being. They kicked and punched him for how long he didn't know but after three hours in real time his little beaten and bruised body was losing its consciousness and all feeling of pain was eluding him now.

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 **(Inside Naruto's mindscape)**

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Naruto's eyes opened and he woke up to feel something wet under him. He picked his tiny body up and looked around innocently wondering where he was. The place was filled with ankle length water and darkly lit hallways that was dripping in man places. He grew scared of the completely silent and scary looking place.

"Am I dead? Looks like I really was a demon like everyone said. This doesn't look like heaven at all." he said to himself and heard a low grumble in a far away place. He walked up through the darkly lit hallways towards the sound that was growing louder as he walked towards it. He came up to a huge hallway where the waters were knee deep and heard a loud calmly breathing voice behind the seemingly endless in height metal bars. He watched in amazement at the huge cage and his eyes narrowed at the small tag in the middle of the cage. He read the Kanji for 'Seal' inscribed on it and was confused.

"Wow this must be for someone pretty big, I can walk through the cages no problem..." he said to himself. "... Or the person who made them was pretty stupid." he muttered and jumped up in fright when he heard a loud chuckle from behind the bar. He watched wide eyed when a pair of eyes, red slitted eyes as big as himself opened up and looked at him in... Amusement?

" **So my jailor finally comes to grace me with his presence. I'm honored..."** the voice said sarcastically. Naruto was breathing heavily, he saw the large fangs, much bigger than himself inside the darkness and the malice, bloodlust and the pure evil that he felt from behind those bars. Whoever was behind them, scared him to no end. He gulped and decided to voice a question that was plaguing him.

"W-Who are y-you?" he squeaked out softly and heard that same evil chuckle from behind that huge fanged mouth. He watched with wide eyes as the figure stood up and came in front of him. The huge form of a red fox came in front of him. But what frightened him to no end was the huge waving Nine Tails flowing wildly behind him. Tears formed in his eyes and he curled up in a ball, crying heavily to himself. This made the fox really confused, sure he looked scary but he hadn't even made any death threats yet. So why was he crying?

"I really am in hell. I am a demon like they all said, now I will have to suffer forever." he whispered to himself making the demonic fox go wide eyed. The child thought he was already dead huh? And he was in hell? This was the chance of a lifetime he mused to himself with a wide fanged grin.

" **Hey kit..."** he started making his puffy eyes stare back into those malicious slitted eyes. **"... You see that seal tag up there..."** he pointed to the tag with the kanji for 'Seal' on it with one of his claws and Naruto nodded with a small cute sniff.

" **Can you remove it? I have been trapped in here for so long. It feels really lonely to be trapped in here..."** he said calmly taking the off chance that the child might be stupid enough to do it if he played his cards right. Naruto looked at him innocently and wiped his nose softly.

"Yeah it must feel really lonely being trapped there. I'll do it, wait a minute..." he said standing up making the fox's eyes widen in shock.

" **You will really free me, you know who I am don't you?"** he asked curiously watching the child walk up to the cage. Naruto nodded as the fox put his head down to let his eyes watch the boy closely before he freed him and then decide if he'll rip him to shreds or not.

"Yeah you are the Nine Tailed fox who attacked our village aren't you?" he asked getting a nod from the fox who looked at him even more curiously now.

" **Yes I am the great Kyuubi no Kitsune, you know that yet you want to free me knowing who I am and what I'm capable of?"** he asked curiously knowing the child was really smart if he wanted to be after all the years of watching him. A vision came through his mind of the past.

" _I'm sorry Kyuubi, but you are too powerful to be left roaming outside. Please forgive me." a solemn voice of Hashirama Senju, the Shodaime Hokage spoke while he subdued him with his Mokuton after his battle with Madara came to an end. That was the last thing he heard before he was sealed inside Mito and his last moments of freedom for many decades._

He had hoped that the Senju would let him go now that the accursed Uchiha was dead but it wasn't to be. That pathetic mortal betrayed him and his wife sealed him within herself becoming the first jinchuriki of the Nine Tails.

He kept his eyes on the child when he walked up to his cage and put his tiny hand on his nose, rubbing it softly making his eyes widen in shock. Even if he couldn't hurt him as long as the seal was up, he still should be afraid of him.

" **What are you doing child? Are you not afraid of me?"** he asked seeing his little innocent smile and the way he kept rubbing his nose. He didn't even realize when a small tear formed in his own tear duct after so many centuries and dropped on the ground when Naruto spoke up.

"You must have been so lonely. I know how loneliness feels, don't worry I'll free you..." he said softly making the fox's eyes widen in shock. Another vision flashed through his head. A vision he hadn't remembered in nearly a millennia now.

" _Jiji don't leave me..." a young and small Nine tails spoke to a man with a staff and robes with many magatama embroidered over it. The old and wise man smiled and rubbed the nose of the fox softly._

" _Do not worry Kurama, there will come a time when you'll meet a person who will truly want to be your friend. You'll form a special bond with him and realize what true friendship means." the man said wisely as the young fox cried wrapping the man up in his nine tails._

" _Really jiji, will a human really be my friend?" asked the young fox innocently making the man smile and nod while he petted the fox softly._

" _I promise you Kurama, you'll meet him one day and when you do just give him the small present I left you with alright?" he asked and the fox nodded with tears, hugging the man tightly._

"Say will you be my friend?" he asked, the soft voice of the boy in front of him making him break out of his thoughts and look at the child in amazement.

" _Is he the one you spoke of jiji? I sense no negative emotions in his heart or his voice..."_ he thought watching the child's innocent eyes and nodded making Naruto grin happily.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, say what's your name?" he asked innocently once again surprising the fox. No one in his entire life, ever since the Sage of Six Paths had ever asked the name his jiji had once given him. He was always the Nine Tails or the Mightiest of the Bijuu in the eyes of humans. Sometimes even the 'Lord of Demons' in some of the stupider ones but never recognized as a normal living being. Another tear rolled down his eye as he reached out his paw to the child and Naruto rubbed it, watching it's sheer size and softness of the paw in amazement. The fox watched with a small smile as he nuzzled into his hand with giggles.

" _It has taken far too long jiji..."_ he thought to himself with a smile when Naruto's voice cut in through the silence.

"Hey you do have a name right? I mean Nine Tails or Kyuubi is not a nice name. If you want maybe I can give you a nice name but you must have a name." he said innocently making the fox laugh.

" **I do have a name but no one knows it. I don't give my name to those who aren't worthy. But I'll tell you on one condition..."** he said raising a finger with his large claw and Naruto nodded. He wasn't going to lose his chance to gain his first friend after all.

" **You won't tell it to anyone without my permission..."** he said and Naruto nodded with a grin. The fox grinned himself and spoke up.

" **The name is Kurama kit, now get this accursed seal off so I can help you get rid of those pathetic humans who dare harm my container."** he growled and Naruto stood confused, tilting his head to the side cutely.

"But I'm dead now right?" he asked innocently making the fox sigh. He had forgotten that he was trying to manipulate him at first before that accursed innocence had gotten through to him.

" **No, you aren't dead."** he stated flatly making Naruto's confusion to increase. He sat down cross legged and cross armed narrowing his eyes at the fox.

"Then how am I able to meet you? The Yondaime killed you eight years ago after all." he asked pointing an accusing finger at the huge fox who snorted in disgust.

" **As if a mere human like him could kill me, the mightiest of the bijuu. He just sealed me up in you by sacrificing his pathetic excuse of a life to the Shinigami. We are currently in your mindscape and once more, you aren't dead."** he said calmly making Naruto's eyes widen in shock. Now he understood why they all called him a demon and gave him those looks. His eyes watered as reality crashed down upon his tiny mind. The fox watched the pained eyes and the small tears in pure curiosity. He wanted to see how the child would react now that he knew the truth. Otherwise he still had many ways to manipulate him or just let him die and be dispersed for many years before reforming. Though he wasn't looking forward to that. But much to his shock the child hugged his large nose and cried.

"I'm sorry, you are trapped here all because of me for all these years. No one deserves that..." he sniffled softly making the fox stunned once more. The child cared more for him instead of despising him for all he had endured all those years?

" **Do you not understand kit, I was the reason those stupid humans despised you. You should blame or hate me..."** he said while Naruto shook his head snuggling up to him.

"No, whatever the reason you shouldn't be trapped and so alone all this time. It's all my fault..." he sniffled shocking the fox even further. His eyes softened and he wrapped a tail around him to calm the little child down.

" **You really are an interesting one Naruto..."** he said with a chuckle as he felt him calm down and watched him with pure curiosity. The child was almost unreadable to him.

"Hey how can I open up this cage?" he asked with a hiccup making the fox confused. He had explained him to just rip that tag right? He heard the boy continue however.

"It's too high..." he said innocently and the fox stared at him blankly for a few moments making Naruto nervous and fiddle with his feet cutely.

"What?" he asked thinking he said something wrong when the fox broke up in a fit of laughter making Naruto annoyed. He was making fun of his height wasn't he? He thought angrily and huffed puffing his cheeks cutely. He looked on confused as the fox laid down a paw in front of him with a smile.

" **Get on it."** he said calmly making Naruto grin and nod. He got on his large paw as the fox raised the little boy up to the seal. Naruto put a hand on the seal with a smile as Kurama watched his first chance at freedom after almost a century with a fond smile. Just as Naruto was about to pull the tag a hand caught his wrist and pulled him back towards the ground harshly. Naruto was shocked at the sudden action and turned his head to see a blonde man with almost the same cerulean blue eyes as him and the white cloak with red flames at it's bottom. He recognized the man almost instantly and was wide eyed.

"Y-Yondaime?" he whispered out in shock at seeing his dead idol standing in front of him with a smile. The man nodded and smiled at the little child.

"Yes Naruto, I'm the Yondaime Hokage." he said calmly when suddenly Naruto was startled to hear the loud rattles of the cage behind him. He saw Kurama thrashing in his cage angrily growling at the Yondaime.

" **Yondaime come here so I can rip you to shreds!"** roared Kurama. Minato narrowed his eyes at the fox and glared at him.

"You really are a manipulative fox aren't you Kyuubi. To think you would need to manipulate a child like this to gain your freedom..." he said making the fox thrash his cage even more violently in rage.

" **You dare judge me you pathetic mortal. At least I didn't try and manipulate a little child into a loyal weapon like your beloved village you sacrificed our lives for!"** he roared in anger making Minato's eyes narrow even further.

"What do you mean? Sarutobi will never let that happen..." he was cut off as Kurama broke out in an amused laughter. Oh this would be amusing alright when he watched his face see the harsh realities the child... his son no less had endured at the hands of his beloved villagers and shinobis.

" **That spineless monkey couldn't even make the child stay in an orphanage with the other children much less get him the life as a 'Hero' you last wished him to have. He gave him an apartment and a monthly allowance. But I saw all through those pities and cowardice to the real truth. You humans can't escape these critical eyes and my senses..."** he said with a smirk making Minato growl and clench his fists at hearing his words. He glanced at Naruto who had his head down and knew the fox spoke the truth seeing no denial from Naruto's mouth. His son had been left alone to fend for himself and what did...

"What do you mean? Stop beating around the bush and speak clearly." he growled angrily making the fox grin widely. Yes, this was what he wanted to see. His face when he realized what the child had been through at the hands of his beloved friends and village.

" **Oh, that monkey left the child all alone to fend for himself with a little change he called a monthly allowance. When all the shops overpriced every little food or amenities for the little child and threw him out of their shops, he came every once in a while with that sweet smile, treating him to his favourite food every now and then. All for him to stay loyal to him and preaching how the villagers were naive and will come along someday when he would show them who he was. After becoming Hokage no less!"** he said in laughter and Minato scowled. He glanced at Naruto who was saying nothing to deny anything making him furious to no end when the fox continued.

" **The little child with no money after the second week of the month scoured the garbage like a street urchin. He was even thrown out of places when he asked them for some leftovers with curses to his existence ad to die like the pathetic demon he was. Your oh so faithful Hokage was always too busy to see him when he went to ask for some more money. Eventually he became so scared of his treatment that he never asked for a raise in his allowance thinking he might be bereft of that too. If not for me and my demonic chakra taking almost all the nutrition and none of the harmful viruses from the food he scured from the garbage and trash heaps, the child wouldn't have made it past malnutrition much less the beatings..."** his mirth filled tirade was cut off as Minato grabbed the bars in anger and pure fury.

"BEATINGS! WHAT BEATINGS? ANSWER ME DAMN IT!" he roared making the fox double over in laughter.

" **The streets of your peaceful village are not so peaceful in the night for a child who is rummaging for food..."** he said in chuckles making Minato clench his teeth.

"YOU LIE! THERE MUST HAVE BEEN ANBU WATCHING OVER HIM!" he said angrily but did nothing to make the fox's laughter or tirade to die down.

" **Oh yes those masked men, they do their job really perfectly..."** he said, his voice dripping with complete sarcasm and mirth with a huge laugh and cut off his retort with one of his own.

" **Why don't you watch what your beloved villagers and shinobi are doing right now?"** he asked amusedly and brought his paw up to open up a vision channel with his demonic chakra through Naruto's eyes. Minato watched horrified as several chunin, jounin and even ANBU were beating down a small and battered form. But his eyes widened in horror when he saw the small locks of sunshine blonde hair and those faint whiskers that no one else had. He turned to Naruto to plead that it was all a lie and the fox's manipulation when he saw his hair shadowing his eyes and small drops falling from his eyes making his heart drop completely in guilt and regret.

He buried his face in his hands in regret and loathing at what he had subjected his child to.

"Oh god what have I done?" he whispered to himself making the fox snort in disgust.

" **And you humans say I am dangerous. Your pathetic species despises and loathes an innocent child in ways not even us bijuus would do to humans..."** he said calmly, his anger over the man who sealed him subsiding when he watched his guilt stricken face for his child. Both of their voices turned silent when they heard a third soft voice cut through.

"How are you here? Am I really dead?" Naruto sniffled with teary eyes making Minato himself wanting to cry at how fragile and innocent his son looked with completely no knowledge about him whatsoever.

"No Naruto you are not dead. I placed a small amount of my chakra as a fail-safe in the seal if you ever fell to the fox's manipulation." he said softly ignoring the snort from the fox behind him.

" **Why don't you ask him Naruto about how he knows your name? Doesn't that make you curious? Go on I plead you to."** asked the fox making Naruto look up in realization. How did the Yondaime really know him personally? He was just a no name orphan that everyone wanted dead after all. Minato threw a death glare at the grinning fox, oh this would be interesting thought the fox. He wanted to see how he would explain this to his innocent son.

"How do you know my name?" Naruto sniffled making Minato's heart tear away and he shut his eyes close in regret. A moment later he smiled sadly and walked up to the sitting child. He crouched down in front of him and rubbed one of his cheeks softly with a smile making Naruto's big baby blue eyes look at him innocently with such affection it made his heart clench at how much his son had been derived of such necessary things. what had he done? But it was time to fix it now.

"How couldn't I know your name Naruto when I was the one who gave it to you?" he asked softly and Naruto's eyes widened. The Yondaime had named him? But why?

He watched his features closely. Sunshine blonde hair, those same cerulean blue eyes...

"Daddy?" he whispered out softly making a tear drop from Minato's eye and he nodded. He waited for the despising or cursing, even a slap or a punch for what he did to him to take away the guilt that was eating away at him when Naruto threw himself in the man's arms and cried heavily. Minato was shocked but he wrapped his arms around his small form and put his cheek on his head. How he had wished to hug his son for so long he thought rubbing his back softly.

"Daddy I was so alone... They ignored me... Sometimes hit me... I cried when I was hungry... It hurt... It hurt me so much... Please don't leave me again..." he sobbed hugging his father tightly. Minato tightened his arms and tried to take all his pain away. He should have listened to Kushina and shouldn't have sealed the fox in his own son and leave him alone like that. She was right, she was always right. He was blinded by his faith in his village to see the real picture and his son paid for it.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I'm so so sorry it's all my fault." he whispered running his hands through his soft blonde locks with his eyes closed shut. He felt his little boy go limp in his arms with soft slow breathing. He watched his little innocently sleeping form and was confused to no end when he heard the deep voice behind him speak calmly.

" **The child is at death's door. Even with my healing I could only do so much. His mind has become too tired that is why it has shut itself down to recover but I'm afraid the child won't last very long like this..."** spoke the fox calmly with a hint of sadness making Minato hug his son tightly.

"Oh god I surrendered my son to this all by himself. I should have listened to Kushina, now I'll lose him to those bastards..." he whispered hugging the sleeping Naruto tightly when he heard the fox sigh tiredly.

" **He doesn't have to die..."** he said making Minato's eyes snap open in an instant and turn to him.

"What do you mean?" he asked clutching Naruto tightly and looked at the fox pleadingly for a solution from this.

" **Remove the seal..."** he said calmly and raised his paw to silence the growling rebuttal of Minato. Minato didn't say anything, seeing he really had no other choice but to listen and maybe make out some way out of this for his son. He really would die either way anyhow.

" **Remove the seal and I'll take over his body's control for a while and deal with those pests accordingly. With complete access to his body and my demonic healing the child will pull through."** he said calmly and Minato clenched his jaw shut finding some sense but still...

"Don't try to fool me even then Naruto's little body isn't in any condition to handle your demonic chakra needed to fight so many people at once. You are just saying it to get your own freedom..." he was cut off when the fox growled in anger.

" **Look who you speak to in that tone you pathetic human. Even if I die I will reform once again in a few years and roam free. I am not bound to life like you puny mortals, I am a concentrated mass of chakra hence I cannot die even with the Shinigami's seal since I am not bound to life like you."** he said making Minato grit his teeth knowing he was right. The bijuu always reformed in a few years after their deaths according to old records he had read as his short time in the Hokage office within his personal archives when the fox continued.

" **And as for his body not being able to handle it, I know that it won't..."** he said shocking Minato and continued.

" **I shall give him a gift that my father entrusted to me for when I found one worthy enough to wield it. That boy's innocence is really contagious..."** he said with a tired sigh realizing how soft he was growing for the little child making Minato smile and kiss his son's head softly as he heard him out with all ears.

"What is this gift? And you have a father?" he asked curiously and got another snort making him twitch at the annoying fox.

" **My father, the Sage of Six Paths..."** he said calmly making Minato wide eyed and smirked as he continued. **"... He entrusted me with the last of his power when he was on his deathbed, a kekkei genkai wielded by his mother herself. I shall give it to the boy, with that power combined with my skills those fleas won't even stand a chance with a little healed up body. I am known as the mightiest of the bijuu for a reason after all."** he said proudly, patting his chest with his huge paw making Minato fall completely silent and look at the sleeping face of his son contemplating his choices.

" _Can I trust him?"_ he thought gazing at his sleeping son and brushed his hair softly. _"What am I hesitating for? I condemned him to this after all, even if the chances are slim it's the least I could do for him and to make up for my mistakes. I should have let that traitorous village burn instead of condemning my son's childhood over their lives like Kushina told me in the first place anyways."_ he thought standing up and walking to the cage with Naruto in his arms. The fox laid down his paw for him to get on and Minato got on it with a small jump. Kurama raised his paw to the height of the seal and Minato gripped it and hesitated for a moment and spoke up.

"Please promise me one thing..." he said calmly making the fox raise an eyebrow and listen to the man even if he wouldn't promise anything.

"Just please don't hurt Naruto anymore than they already have or I swear I still have enough chakra for one last seal and I'll seal you inside one of those bastards outside..." he stated calmly with icy cold eyes. Kurama watched his face in curiosity. He wasn't threatening him, he was merely stating a fact. The fox respected a man who protected his family even in this adversity and smirked.

" **I never make any promises to humans..."** he said making Minato narrow his eyes when he continued.

" **But just this once I'll promise you one thing as an exception for the child. None of those humans will leave here alive and your kit will live. I want to watch how his life goes because i know it will be interesting to watch. I have been sealed for two lifetimes already what's a few more years without an annoying seal. Now rip that seal we are running out of time..."** he said making Minato smile and nod as he ripped the seal open and twisted the swirling lock of the cage. Minato jumped back as Kurama punched the cage open with a laugh and cracked his neck with a smirk.

" **Finally after so many years. Now let's get this over with. Hand the child over to me..."** he said calmly putting his paw forward. Minato took one last glance at Naruto with nervousness as he was about to hand over his son to the bijuu when Kurama spoke up.

" **Don't worry, the kit will live and you'll see it yourself. This is the first time I have ever tried to help a human after that bastard Madara made me his pawn. You trusted your village with your child once right, now put your faith in me and see for yourself the difference between a human and the word of the lord of the Bijuus."** he said wisely making Minato's worries wash away completely as he put his son into Kurama's paw and Kurama held his other hand over him while closing his eyes to take control of the boy and start the awakening of the bloodline he would need to deal with those pests. Minato knew the fox was many things with honorable being the most prominent of them all.

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 **(Outside Naruto's mindscape)**

* * *

All the shinobi in the group were laughing and going through the time of their lives as the beating carried on.

"Yes just a little more and he won't survive even with that bastardized demonic healing of his." one of them laughed and all of them renewed their kicks with a new rigor. The little body had many kunais lodged in non-fatal points to keep him alive and make it as painful as possible. No one noticed the small boy's eyes open with two red slitted eyes instead of the usual cerulean blue pools. Kurama channeled his demonic chakra throughout his body and forced a lot of it with the small chakra pool his father, the Sage of Six Paths had entrusted him with to the boy's left eye. The left eye glowed and the pupil shrunk to a small dot with concentric rings forming around it. The eye glowed red and the three tomoes spun wildly in the first ring of the newly blazing and awakened eye.

All of them stopped their laughing and beating as they saw a small red sheen coat the little boy's body and much to their horror causing the wounds to heal completely right before their very eyes. The stabbed kunais were pushed out by the demonic chakra and Naruto's hands turned into claws with two fangs elongating a bit from his mouth up to his lower lip giving him a fanged appearance. A wave of huge killing intent washed over the clearing causing every chunin who couldn't handle it to wet their pants and drop to their knees, shaking like dry leaves. The jounins and ANBU sweated profusely and unconsciously stepped back from the boy in fear.

They watched in horror as the little red sheen rose up from his body taking the form of the head of a fox and gave a mighty roar at them that none of them had heard in eight long years. Naruto's little body rose up as the little scars stitched themselves and his body healed up completely with the demonic chakra disappearing slowly into himself. Kurama realized that was all that his little body could handle for now. He saw how great the vision from his left eye was and how he could see their chakra networks with the utmost precision making Kurama smirk a fanged smile. The bloodline really seemed as powerful as his Jiji had told him it would be.

Their hearts dropped when they saw the almost dead boy from a moment ago, rise to his feet and cracking his new claws enhanced by the demonic chakra for the time being to aid him in the oncoming slaughter. Their bloods ran cold when the shadowed eyes of the child came in their views and met their gazes. One eye had a normal sized pupil but it was red with a black slit in the middle; but what truly frightened the each of them was the second eye. It was completely scarlet with concentric rings and three tomoes in it's first ring. The power that it exuded made them scared to their wits and the chunins to fall completely unconscious. Kurama grinned baring the two new fangs at the witlessly scared shinobi who were still conscious making them gulp.

"D-Demon." one of them whispered making Kurama smile ear to ear.

" **Why yes you are right mortal, you've just awakened the real demon you wanted to kill so badly. Now let's see how you all fair against the one you wanted to meet instead of the innocent child you were beating earlier."** Naruto's voice spoke up with a heavy demonic tone to it making them all shiver from the sheer bloodlust his voice and especially those eyes held. He smiled an evil smile to them and they took out their kunais with their trembling hands and held them in front of them shakily with the ANBU doing the same with their tantos. 'Naruto' took out the first kunai that the ANBU had buried in his shoulder to the hilt which was too deep to push with the little demonic chakra he had access to. He pulled it out with a small squelch and without so much as a blink making them all wide eyed as he just wiped it off the blood like it was nothing more than a mere scratch. They watched in complete horror as the wound stitched itself completely without so much as a scar and 'Naruto' held the kunai to his side in a reverse grip and cracked the claws in his other hand with a fanged grin.

" **Now gentlemen let's get this show started..."** spoke 'Naruto' with that same evil smile and charged forward with a small burst of blue chakra to his feet, cracking the ground behind him. The first ANBU of the three, not expecting the eight-year-old to have such insane speeds tried to swipe his tanto at 'Naruto's' unprotected neck. 'Naruto' watched the tanto come to his neck in an almost too slow a speed for his left eye and swiped it away with the kunai in his hand with barely any effort at all and swiped his claw at the man's neck. A shower of blood erupted and the man gurgled gripping his slashed throat with horrified eyes, his vision darkening and the last thing he saw was those two glowing red eyes with that same fanged grin as the life left his eyes and he fell to the ground, dead.

The others watched on horrified as the seemingly unharmful demon brat just dispatched an ANBU and... Grinned. 'Naruto' watched his bloodied claw and smiled. It had been so long since he had cut loose and today he had the perfect targets to take out all of his frustrations built up over so many years.

"T-The seal is weakening. L-Let's finish him off now before he frees himself completely." one of the jounins stuttered and the rest nodded when they heard an inhumane mirth filled laugh coming from the boy. 'Naruto' turned to them chuckling as he watched their horrified expressions in glee.

" **You pathetic humans, the seal is no more. I am free!"** he said chuckling and all of them turned as pale as a sheet as his words registered in their minds. Visions of the destruction they saw eight yeas ago flashed across their minds when they gazed into those glowing scarlet eyes and the killing intent and pure blood-lust he was releasing at them.

"Forget about the demon let's just retreat..." one of them started but was cut off when his throat was sliced open in an instant with a kunai. The rest of them watched while 'Naruto' jump back to avoid the gruesome shower that erupted from the clean swipe 'Naruto' made at the man's throat and grinned happily.

" **None of you will leave alive!"** he roared chuckling evilly making their bloods run cold as they heard the sheer confidence in his voice.

"Come on we are three, two jounins and an ANBU we still have numbers on our side. Let's just finish the damn demon off and return to get our heroic welcome to finish off that filth from the world." said the ANBU making the two of them nod as they gripped their weapons tightly. The two jounins shot forward and the first swiped his kunai at his neck that 'Naruto' ducked under, predicting it almost before he made the move himself with hisleft eye. His left eye calculated the incoming kick and saw it coming a mile away but Kurama realized this small body wasn't fast enough to react on those keen instincts yet and cursed, bracing himself with crossed arms and took the kick on his guard. He flew back a few feet and growled as he watched the ANBU coming from above with a vertical swipe to cleave him in half. He closed his eyes for a moment to concentrate and smirked.

" _The kit has a wind affinity. This will certainly help my style of fighting."_ he thought happily opening his eyes and his slitted pupil dilated with the tomoes in the other spinning wildly to slow down the perception and channeled his demonic chakra laced with the child's wind chakra into the kunai sharpening it many folds with an invisible layer of wind chakra. He swiped it horizontally in the path of the vertical slash making the ANBU smirk behind his mask. His tanto had enough force to cleave him down right through that swipe and finish him once and for all.

He watched the blade meet the kunai and instead of breaking through the swipe and kunai; the kunai instead cleaved right through it like hot knife through butter and made its way to his neck. 'Naruto' smirked as he watched the man's head being cleaved from his shoulders cleanly with the wind chakra laced kunai and drop to the side like a ball while the body dropped on the ground with blood pooling on the grass at his feet.

The other two watched on in shock as their leader was killed so easily and the demon turning to them with a chuckle. He channeled chakra to his feet jumping back to the tree and sticking to it's bark. He bent his knee to gain enough force and let out a huge burst of chakra jumping straight towards the two horror stricken jounin. They didn't even realize when 'Naruto' came up to them in a burst of speed not giving them time to put up their guards and flew right between them while swiping his kunai at one's throat and his clawed hand at the other, finishing them off with another shower of blood. Both of them fell, clutching their throats with gurgles and fell down in two dead heeps while 'Naruto' turned around with a disappointed frown marred on his face.

" **Well that was... Disappointing to say the least. I expected a better fight from them."** 'Naruto' said watching the four ANBU and jounin and the seven unconscious chunins on the ground who were still alive. He walked up to them and slit each of the chunin's throats cleanly making them pass from the world without any pain whatsoever and sat down under a tree in a meditative position, closing his eyes to focus and re-enter the mindscape.

* * *

 **(Inside Naruto's Mindscape)**

* * *

Kurama opened his eyes and put the boy in his paws down in the arms of his father. Minato took him in his arms and cradled his little boy lovingly with a kiss on his head as he watched his soft breathing and peacefully sleeping face with a smile.

" **It's done. None of them was even a challenge even with so many limitations on the kit's body. It was disappointing to say the least. I expected a better fight after all those years of captivity."** he said in a disappointed tone making Minato sweat drop.

"You do realize that it was a millenia old bijuu in a child's body against some few years old shinobi right?" he asked sarcastically making the fox snort and cross his arms in defiance.

" **So? It's not my fault most of you humans are so damn pathetic. At least you were a little match for me back then."** he said smugly making Minato's eye twitch.

"You do remember the results of that fight don't you?" Minato asked rhetorically making the fox growl.

" **Hey I would let you know I was under the influence of that accursed Uchiha until the very last minute of the sealing. When I came to my senses you pathetic humans were attacking me like crazy and blocking my path to leave so I retaliated and before I knew it that damned toad was on my back with you over it."** he said angrily and glared at the man. Minato smirked as he saw he was getting under that annoying fox's skin.

"Yeah and then you were sealed. By Me!" he said smugly getting a growl but Kurama stopped when he saw the little child in his arms, sleeping so peacefully and stood down.

" **All because of those chains that your wife used on me, otherwise not even your whole village could have stopped me long enough for you to perform the sealing."** he said with a small growl not wanting to let the man have the last word in the argument and Minato smiled seeing how he was holding back his anger just for his son and nodded gratefully.

"Arigato Kurama..." he was cut off when Kurama's claw stopped inches from his face and his furious eyes with his fangs bared at him. He stopped just because of the innocently sleeping Naruto snuggle up in his arms and growled in a low and deep voice.

" **Only those I give permission to call me by my name can call me that. You are not worthy to call me by my name. Only your son can call me that because I said so, so if you value your time in this mindscape then you have then remember it well."** he said pulling his paw back and Minato nodded not wanting to aggravate the fox any further.

"I am grateful for what you did. So thank you for doing so much anyways." he said and Kurama huffed and said nothing feeling a bit embarrassed at helping a human, a child no less! He was the mightiest of the bijuu, the lord of the demons, he had a reputation to maintain damn it!

" **I just did it to get some blood and vent out my frustrations a bit after all these years of captivity. Don't look so much into it."** he said with a small huff and Minato wasn't sure but he saw a bit more red on his cheeks than usual though shrugged it off instantly thinking it was impossible for the demonic fox to blush no less to say the least.

"So when would Naruto wake up?" he asked in a concerned tone making Kurama glance with a single open eye at the sleeping boy and contemplated his answer for a few moments.

" **He has suffered a lot of emotional trauma on his already much too innocent and fragile mind. The amount of pain he tolerated shows how strong willed he is just like all those idiotic Uzumakis before him."** he grumbled irritatedly making Minato chuckle as he remembered the stubborn and old times he had spent with Kushina. He wondered why her fail-safe hadn't activated yet and she had yet to appear but figured since he had tuned it for when Naruto needed to subdue the Nine Tails but now with him cooperating with his little boy completely the trigger hadn't happened.

" **By my estimates he will be out like a light for at least two days straight even with me working on it constantly as much as I could in his condition."** he said after a moment making Minato shocked knowing how much it must be if it took that much time even with the Nine Tails healing him so fast. He glanced at his son sadly, how had he put such a large burden on him without thinking about him for a moment and left him at the village's mercy without any precautions other than a stupid dying wish that they had all but ignored? And to add salt to that those bastards had completely disregarded his last wish especially Sarutobi and where the hell was Jiraiya? His supposed godfather, for all these years? He shouldn't have let all of this have happened in the first place!

Kurama watched his eyes turn icy and his negative emotions, especially rage run prominent within him and knew what he was thinking about but now wasn't the time.

" **Yondaime, the child is still at the borders of Grass and Iwa. The both of them being equally dangerous for him at the moment. I don't know these landscapes that much so tell me where the safest place would be for the kit in the time being. I shall take him there and let him rest up, till we figure out something else for the kit. Any village or nation non-allied to the Leaf would be preferable."** he said the last sentence with a lot of weight in it making Minato nod. He himself didn't want his son to return to that hell anymore and any place would be better for him than that hellhole of a village, the stability of power between the villages with the bijuus be damned! He sharpened his mind and thought of all the possible places where he could go for the time being.

"The nearest non-allied village would be the Land of Rivers. They are not allied to any village and completely neutral to everyone with the Land of Waves only a day away from it. He can rest in any of those two for the time being. You should start heading south and cross through near the tree-lines beside the borders of Rain to make it there safely without encountering any leaf patrols. I know how they work and that is the safest route for it. It will take you until until midnight if you go at high genin speeds to reach the smallest civilian village there. There is a small family house I built as a small hideout there that will help him which I still remember from my days as a chunin and he could rest there until we figure something out for him." he said in his Hokage mode making the fox nod. That was the maximum speed he could achieve anyways with what little demonic chakra his body could hold after that last fight.

" **Alright then I will take control of the boy's body and you could guide me after I enter the River country's borders to that small village and hideout you speak of."** he said wisely and Minato nodded. The fox clapped his hands together in concentration to once again take control of the child's body and escaped his mindscape.

* * *

 **(Outside Naruto's Mindscape)**

* * *

'Naruto' opened his eyes that were both red and slitted with black slits this time, instead of the previous combination showing the deactivated bloodline to conserve chakra and the possession that the fox had for the time being. 'Naruto' stood up walking up to the dead ANBU and crouched down beside his prone form, going through his pack. He found what he was looking for in a small pouch and opened it up. He popped a soldier pill into his mouth to replenish the boy's reserves that would help him to counter the effects of the demonic chakra for the time being and give him the necessary boost in chakra for the traveling. He unstrapped the hip pouch and leg holster from the body, looking at them filled up to the brim with kunais and shurikens as well as some money making him smirk. These would be useful for the kit for the survival when he woke up and it wasn't really stealing he mused since they weren't any use to the dead owner anymore. This was why he preferred killing, so many benefits!

He strapped them on himself and stood up, jumping onto a branch. He stopped suddenly though, when he heard a voice in his head.

"Hey Kyuubi stop, can you hear me?" asked Minato from within the mindscape and Kurama stopped jumping to see what he wanted now.

" **Yeah I hear you, what do you want?"** he asked mentally making Minato sigh in relief who had his hands on Naruto's temples in the mindscape that the telepathic link was working between them.

"We can't leave those bodies as they are. The leaf will create hell with them if they found that out along with some traces of your demonic chakra in the air. We need to finish of all traces first." Minato said making the fox growl but knew he was right and clenched his fists in anger.

" **Then what should I do, bury them?"** he growled in his mind thinking how much time it would take and much to his annoyance Minato laughed adding much more annoyance at his already growing irritation.

"No take some exploding tags from their packs and rig their bodies with a link to your chakra. Once we are far enough trigger them with a chakra burst, it should alert Iwa and Grass enough along with the leaf to create a confusion and use the distraction to leave cleanly and stealthily." he said sharply making Kurama smirk and nod. It was a fine plan, just how he liked it. Blow everything up and then plan the next step, Kurama style! 'Naruto' jumped down to the dead bodies and scrunched his nose up in disgust. He always hated the stench of dead bodies especially with his advanced senses. He started going through their packs collecting exploding tags and putting them on the dead bodies while linking them to his chakra as Minato explained him how to do it step by step being a seal master had it's perks after all.

It took too much time in his opinion. His style was much more efficient, create a **Bijuudama** , blow everything up and laugh at the destruction. But oh well, this would do for now he mused to himself as he put the last tag on and linked it to his chakra . He jumped up on the tree branches again making his way down south along the border's treeline. He made it five kilometers out and stopped knowing it was far enough from any sensor or trackers with him not leaving any trace behind. He made a half ram seal as Minato instructed and let out a short burst of chakra. An explosion rocked the clearing where he had left them and both whistled as they watched them blow up that part of the clearing high enough for him to watch them even from this distance.

" **Now that really is convenient."** he said to himself when he heard that annoying voice in his head speak up.

"Yeah the wonders of sealing, but you would know that already wouldn't you?" asked Minato smugly making Kurama's eye twitch in annoyance and he started jumping through the trees down south ignoring his jab when he saw the sun setting down. He kept jumping and it went pitch black in darkness after another hour making him growl. He wished his demonic senses allowed him night perception but now he would have to waste chakra for it. Every little bit was useful for now but he didn't have any other choice, it would speed up his traveling after all.

He channeled chakra into his left eye making it turn completely red with the same concentric ring pattern and the three tomoes in the first ring. The tomoes spun when he focused and the world became sharper for him with clear visibility for a decent vision even in the dead darkness of the night. The left eye glowed in the darkness as he started his travel again at his previous speeds with his left eye granting him clear vision even in such darkness. He watched as the treeline showed him the raining area in a distance showing him he was at the borders of Ame and not too far away from River country now, making him smirk. Only a couple of hours more and he would be there...

His thoughts were cut off when his senses picked up on a chakra signature that was very near him and growled flicking out a kunai.

" **Come out, I know you are there."** he growled in anger when a figure stepped out from behind the foliature of trees in front of him. He cursed his luck when he gazed into the eyes of the figure seeing those accursed red eyes with three tomoes in them.

"Naruto Uzumaki, you are coming with me." spoke the female soft angelic voice in a stoic and blank tone making him growl.

" **Of all the people in the world it had to be a damned Uchiha."** he growled to himself as he watched Izumi Uchiha, the girl who had massacred the entire Uchiha clan in a single night put a lock of hair behind her ear calmly as if nothing fazed her whatsoever.

* * *

 _ **Author's notes : There is the first chapter. I was working on this story for the past few days and had put it to the side since I didn't want to start another story for now but the exams and practicals came up so I decided to publish it for the time being and leave it as is. I have some more content written down for it so I will post it if people like it enough and work on Desert Flower as soon as I get the time for it between my exams. So review it and let me know if it is worth continuing or not. Well until next time keep reading and reviewing Ja Ne ;)**_

* * *

 _ **PS : Naruto's left eye and his kekkei genkai in the fic is the Rinne-Sharingan just to be clear and all abilities will be explained in the future chapters don't worry ;)**_


	2. Chapter 2 Realizations

**Naruto : Life in the Akatsuki**

* * *

 **On the borders of Amegakure no sato**

* * *

 **Last Time...**

* * *

" _Naruto Uzumaki, you are coming with me." spoke the female soft angelic voice in a stoic and blank tone making him growl._

" _ **Of all the people in the world it had to be a damned Uchiha."**_ _he growled to himself as he watched Izumi Uchiha, the girl who had massacred the entire Uchiha clan in a single night put a lock of hair behind her ear calmly as if nothing fazed her whatsoever._

* * *

 **Now...**

* * *

'Naruto' stared into the pair of those accursed red Sharingan eyes with complete and unbridled contempt. He growled inwardly, the tomoes in his left eyes spinning wildly while the eye glowed in the pitch black darkness making the usually stoic and emotionless Uchiha princess raise an eyebrow as she gazed into those eyes, especially the left eye that intrigued her the most.

" **Why would I want to come with you** _ **Uchiha**_ **?"** he spat venomously, his voice still deep and a lot lower due to the little demonic chakra that was still keeping the battered and tired body going. The lips of the usually stoic Uchiha princess quirked upwards when she heard the voice that wasn't in anyway normal for a kid his age. Now this was getting intriguing she mused when she gazed at mixing red and blue chakras in his chakra coils that her Sharingan picked up, especially the little red chakra or demonic chakra that was concentrated around his stomach.

"It wasn't a request, I merely stated the fact. Whether you like it or not, you will be coming with me, your feelings on the matter are irrelevant." she stated stoically making 'Naruto' growl. 'Naruto' flicked out a kunai from his hip pouch and charged at the stoically standing Uchiha with a small burst of chakra, hoping to get in a surprise shot. He smirked when he saw her eyes widen and he confidently charged with a growl, pointing the kunai ahead and stabbed in straight through her gut. But much to his horror 'Izumi' burst in a flock of ravens making him growl while baring his small fangs.

" **Genjutsu! I hate those damned eyes!"** he growled while the tomoes in his left eye spun wildly in focus and the ravens disappeared from his view turning into shurikens. He grit his teeth, trying to deflect as many as he could with his kunai and jumped back on the previous branch. His left eye aiding him in predicting almost all of those shurikens path but was startled when he felt something being slapped on his back. He turned around with his left eye glaring at the stoic Uchiha princess when he felt his arms go limp and the eyes to return to the usual deep cerulean blue pools instead of the mismatched scarlet slitted and ringed eyes showing the demonic chakra being sapped from his body completely along with his kekkei genkai dying down..

" **What did y** o **u** do?" he growled with a narrow eye when he felt his body lose all it's feeling and how he was being pushed back into the child's subconscious again while his voice lost all it's weight and demonic nature, reverting back to the soft angelic voice of the eight-year-old boy. She smirked slightly, waving a hand through her silky raven hair coming onto her eyes and snaked her arms around his torso to keep him from falling down and pulled him closer in a warm hug. She gazed into his cerulean eyes as his pupils dilated for a moment before widening, the innocent confusion in them marking the bijuu had been suppressed completely. She brought her hand to his whiskered cheek and saw the slight flinch from her touch but ignored it, leaning her lips to his ear and spoke softly while rubbing his cheek affectionately to calm down his sudden erratic breathing and forced consciousness..

"Now go to sleep, you're coming with me now." she whispered softly bringing his head into her chest softly when the momentary consciousness Naruto was forced into faded and his mind blacked out, the last thing he felt being warm embrace of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

Izumi saw his peacefully sleeping form in her arms and unconsciously tightened her hold on him when she saw his cute purring in his deep sleep and the way he snuggled a bit in her arms. She lifted him off the ground and slung him onto one of her shoulders, jumping towards the borders and hidden village of Ame with a fast and steady pace.

* * *

 **Amegakure no sato**

* * *

Izumi walked in the village walls of Amegakure towards the highest tower in the middle of the village. Everyone around her stared at her walking form though she didn't even have the time to spare them a glance. No one had the nerve to actually ask her who the unconscious boy was especially since the deadly calm aura around her but most of all was her cloak. Those were the cloaks that their 'God of Ame' gave to his personal and loyal people which made her loyalty unquestionable in their eyes. And most of all she was walking to the tower their 'God' resided in so it had to have been an order from their 'God' or 'Angel' to bring the boy for some reason or he must have saved him they all mused.

Izumi's Sharingan blazed through the rain giving her clear perception even in the heavy downpour. Her eyes met the two purple ringed eyes at the top of the tower and she stopped. The both of them stared straight at each other for a few moments before the man on the top of the tower turned around and walked in while she continued her calm and slow stride. Even though it was raining the most startling observation one could make out was that none of them was getting wet by the rain who was already a resident of the place except those who came from the outside and were admitted permission into the village from their 'God'.

* * *

 **God Tower**

* * *

She walked in front of the tower with the two chunins wearing Ame headbands saluting her. She promptly ignored them like always and they watched on stupefied as she walked in with a boy slung over her shoulders which they hadn't noticed till the last moment from her calm and deadly aura that shrouded her. She walked through the huge and dark hallways in front of two large doors as she saw a blue haired girl walk out. Her hair were shoulder length with a small paper flower done in a small origami was pinned in them. She wore the same black cloak with red clouds emblazoned on them and watched the Uchiha princess stand in front of her calmly.

"I need to meet him." the Uchiha princess said stoically making the girl raise an eyebrow.

"Keep the Kyuubi jinchuriki in the assigned room. Pain doesn't need to be bothered with you for now, he is busy with other important affairs." she said, calmly dismissing her making the raven princess's Sharingan flare wildly and her eyes to narrow at the blue haired girl when a voice from inside the room cut their arguments short.

"Konan let her come, I need to listen to what she had to say. Keep the jinchuriki in his room and come talk to me." said a voice from inside the room making the Uchiha princess's Sharingan flare out of existence. She turned around with the blue haired girl now identified as Konan in tow towards a small room in the middle of hallway. Izumi opened the room to enter the room with a small closet, a desk with a chair, a single bed and a small table beside it showing how it contained only the barest necessities. She walked up to the bed and put him down gently on the bed. She watched how he curled up in a little ball making her lips twitch upward seeing his cute sleeping face. She picked the blanket from the feet of the bed and raised it up to his neck, tucking the sleeping boy in who snuggled in the newly found warmth happily. Konan rose an eyebrow at the small gesture, clearly not expecting it. She had half expected her to throw him on the floor and be done with it, but she was being unusually gently as opposed to her cold and dark personality. She ran her slender finger over one of his faint whiskers making the boy purr softly in her sleep and for her to raise an eyebrow in interest.

"Let's go, you shouldn't keep Pain waiting he has other important matters to attend too." spoke Konan calmly making the raven haired princess stop from what she was doing and turned around sharply, walking past her without so much as a glance. Konan's amber eyes lingered on the peacefully sleeping boy for a moment before she too turned around and walked out, closing the door behind her with a small click and followed the Uchiha princess's lead into Pain's throne room.

* * *

 **Pain's Throne Room...**

* * *

Izumi walked in calmly with her usual stoic blank expression marred on her face and Konan followed behind her trail in tow. They stopped several feet away from the man who was sitting at a huge throne in the middle of the fairly large room. His eyes were closed with an elbow plopped on the armrest and his cheek supported in his hand calmly. Five figures stood behind him. Almost each one of them had deathly pale skin and their constant expressions as if they were dead. The strangest thing about each of the six of them was that each of them held the same sickly dead faces, the same purple eyes with many concentric rings and the many piercings in each of their faces. The man sitting on the throne opened his eyes and focused them on the calm and stoic Uchiha standing in front of him.

"What did you wish to talk to me about?" he asked calmly in a wise and an all knowing tone gazing at her inquisitively and smirked how she wasn't giving a single twitch that he could discern out of her.

"What do you plan to do with the jinchuriki?" she asked bluntly in her soft blank tone making all pairs of eyes to narrow in on her with Konan promptly glaring at her from the side. Izumi stood unfazed, not at the slightest bit affected from their gazes and watched him calmly with her usual blank face.

"I do not see how that is any of your concern..." he spoke calmly with narrow eyes and watched as she said nothing just kept staring at him, awaiting the answer to her question when Konan spoke up.

"You do not question the orders of a God, he is your leader and his orders are absolute. You do not request for answers from a God." she said calmly and watched the raven haired girl who looked like she hadn't even heard her. Konan became a bit furious at how she was disrespecting the man in front of her and promptly ignore her too in the process.

"You should know better than to question him after all you are the one who needs protection from the hunter-nins..." she stopped her words when she saw the Sharingan blaze to life and her narrow eyes to turn to her. A calmly dead aura surrounded her making the blue haired girl slightly nervous from that scarlet stare.

"You would do well to remember who I am and who invited me here. I couldn't care less for the protection, there is no hunter-nin that I couldn't kill with a mere glance..." she said in a deadly calm and cold tone making the girl shiver and Pain to smirk. He decided to stop their bickering before it escalated any further.

"Alright that's enough..." he said calmly making their gazes turn to him while Izumi kept her Sharingan up and watched him stoically, awaiting for her answer.

"We will hold him here until the time for his extraction comes. I didn't expect or intend to capture the Nine Tails so soon but it was what fate had intended. It was a brilliantly good fate that he was roaming across the borders of our country with so little regard for protection. As soon as he touched a drop of my rain I sensed his demonic chakra and knew this was our chance. Fate has landed his life in our hands and he shall help us achieve our goals to true peace." he spoke calmly and she nodded, satisfied with his response.

"And what are you going to about him until the extraction time comes, keep him here like a bird in a cage until his time comes? Because I know we don't have the necessary members, money or things that require the sealing of the strongest of the nine tailed beasts." she spoke stoically making Konan's eyes widen in shock. How did she know so many details about what they needed and how long it would take them to collect the resources required for their plans? Pain narrowed his eyes dangerously at the Sharingan wielding kunoichi.

"You know an awful lot about our plans and resources Izumi..." he spoke in a low tone making Konan's blood run cold that he was now going to get rid of her when his voice cut her thoughts completely.

"Though I expected no less from last true heir to the Sharingan." he said with a smirk causing Konan's eyes to widen in shock not expecting such an answer in the least..Izumi smirked putting a lock of hair coming on her eyes behind her ear.

"You have some sort of plan for him then I suppose?" he asked calmly getting a nod in response from the Uchiha princess. He looked at her a bit intrigued to hear out what she had planned for him.

"Why not make him a member of our organization?" she asked getting stupefied looks from them all. She stared at him blankly awaiting what he had to say. Pain saw Konan about to blow a gasket from her usual calm demeanor and spoke up before she did as he expected.

"I don't see your point here Izumi. If it had been anyone else suggesting me such an absurd thing he would be in the afterlife already. But since you say it, your point must have some merit behind it, so let's hear it." he spoke calmly while Konan looked at the man incredulously and wanted to say something. He raised his hand calmly and gave her a sharp look, shutting her up and turned back to the stoic Uchiha giving her a curt nod to speak her point.

"I saw something really interesting when I went to retrieve him from the forest..." she said getting a raised eyebrow from the man. He nodded now even more curious as to what could have caused her to become so interested in the boy. Nothing usually fazed her in the slightest he mused and stayed silent letting her continue.

"He was using demonic chakra to enhance his senses and eyes when he was making his way through the forest alone. His right eye was slitted and scarlet with a hardened pupil which could only be seen in veteran eyes. He sensed my presence as soon as I reached his location. His voice too was completely demonic before it turned to it's normal self after I applied the restriction, paralysis and the chakra suppression seals on him." she said stoically making the man really surprised with a rare smirk.

"That indeed is interesting, the way you say it, it sounds to me like the Kyuubi itself was working in tandem with the boy to help him reach wherever he was headed." he said calmly and seeing no denying or rebuttal but instead the same blank look made him even more intrigued than before.

"So you say he has tamed his bijuu completely then?" he asked though frowned a bit when she shook her head. He looked at her calmly awaiting her explanation as she spoke up.

"I have heard what a fully synchronized bijuu and jinchuriki host are capable of. If that was the case then I would have had to tame the beast itself with my Sharingan before subduing it but he wasn't even using a half tail worth of chakra and his body was tired and almost depleted of chakra. His clothes and his guarded and frightened posture when he gained consciousness for a moment suggest he has suffered some kind of a trauma and had escaped a fight." she said making him nod. It would have been nigh impossible for an eight-year-old to fully control his bijuu without proper training first, and the Kyuubi at that was itself something else. Even then the boy's prowess to use his bijuu's chakra was amazing in itself.

"But that wasn't what intrigued me the most..." she spoke stoically making his eyebrows to shoot up in surprise. There was something even more interesting than such a young boy and bijuu working together then that intrigued her even more? The boy was apparently full of surprises he mused and motioned for her to go on.

"The boy has a bloodline." she stated calmly shocking Pain and Konan to the core. They looked at her as if she had said that Gai was normal, but both knew she never joked and never about such serious matters at that.

"His left eye is nothing like I've ever seen before. It was completely red with the same ripple pattern as your Rinnegan but three tomoes within it's first ring like the Sharingan. He was able to focus on me completely with the utmost clarity in the death of night. His eye gives him predictive capabilities like those of a newly awakened Sharingan though his body is yet to adapt to the speed required for his keen instincts granted to him by it. He broke off my genjutsu like it was nothing and we know the Kyuubi and their jinchuriki were always weak against a genjutsu casted by a Sharingan. Even though it was a weak one, still to break it off in mid battle at his age shows the prowess that eye holds. It was even completely fine even enhanced when being fed the mix of the boy's normal and demonic chakras." she said in her calculative tone. Pain was surprised at her explanation, he had never heard of such a dojutsu before and it clearly sounded powerful from her surmise. To think she got so much about that eye in such a short confrontation was a feat in itself at how keen and sharp her eyes were. But that still didn't explain what she wanted.

"What do suggest then?" he asked calmly making her fall silent and expressionless for a few moments contemplating her answer in her head.

"The boy had most probably fled from the village or as per my guess they tried to get rid of him and he escaped. They treated him like garbage when I was there looking after him in my short tenure as an ANBU and I myself waved off many attempts by those fools. He could become an invaluable member of the organization, I daresay the best. And he has the heritage to prove it too." she said getting a surprised look from the Akatsuki leader. Her surmise sounded really plausible after all he had seen how the foolish villages treated their own jinchurikis that kept the tailed beasts at bay for them. And they were still more that 7-8 years before their extraction plans and the collection of the rest of the bijuu was on a full go. He would be the last one needed anyways and his kekkei genkai could be really useful too. He opened his thoughtful eyes and nodded to himself, turning to the raven haired girl with a confident look.

"Heritage?" he asked getting a nod from the Sharingan wielding kunoichi.

"Yes he will be great after all he is the son of Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki,the princess of whirlpool and a part of your clan too after all." she said and for the first time in many years he was wide eyed at her claim along with Konan. He narrowed his eyes at her to see if she was lying. After all why would they treat the son of their hero and heir to the royal line of the Uzumaki's head family like that?

"How do you know of this?" he asked calmly and she blinked at him making him feel a bit stupid from her gaze.

"He is a carbon copy of the Yondaime after all..." she said making him turn silent. The boy indeed had all the exotic features of his father and it made perfect sense he would choose his own son and an Uzumaki to seal the beast in.

"Besides my mother and Kushina-sama were really close when she was alive. My mother did tell me she knew of his parents and who he was. I went through many records in the ANBU as well when I was in the village." she spoke calmly making him turn completely silent. The advantages were now far outweighing the disadvantages. An ally like him with the blood that ran through the boy's veins and his kekkei genkai could be invaluable if he became loyal to them. The Yondaime was considered unstoppable once he got going, the same with his mother. If he was even like one of them if not both then...

"Alright your points do have merits and this new kekkei genkai can indeed be useful to us. I would like to meet the boy first and see what happened to him and how he takes to joining our cause and then decide his fate. If he does accept then you'll train him and he'll become your partner as our member in the organization. You are the best to train him in his dojutsu since it does have many of the Sharingan's capabilities too. And if he refuses or I think otherwise then he shall be confined here and stay like that until his time for the extraction comes. Tell everyone no one is to meet him and we three will meet him first as soon as he wakes up. Inform me when he wakes, I shall talk to him then." he spoke calmly and the two females nodded with Izumi turning around and walking out of the room calmly, closing the door behind her.

Konan who had stayed silent during the whole conversation turned to the man with a nervous look and spoke up.

"Is this choice really wise Nagato? I mean would he e loyal to us?" she asked and Pain nodded at her words with a steely gaze making her surprised at the faith those eyes held.

"The Uzumaki clan, my clan were the most loyal and honorable once when our clan was prominent back in the old times. Once an Uzumaki pledges his loyalty and makes a promise they are extremely stubborn to a cause. Not many remember our clan now. If he does indeed belong to my clan and didn't get that name just because of pity by the Yondaime and Izumi's words ring true then the boy will be of help to me in bringing the world to a new age of peace like Yahiko once dreamed of. Plus, he might still live a little before he has to be sacrificed for the world." he said with a far away look making Konan's eyes soften and she nodded. It was good that Nagato was still a bit soft at heart even after everything he had been through and that made her friend great. Izumi stepped into Naruto's room and sat down on the chair at his desk with her critical eyes narrowed at his peacefully sleeping form. She would see if he would be her partner or not pretty soon.

* * *

 **Back in Konohagakure no sato...**

* * *

 **Hokage Tower**

* * *

 **Hokage Office**

* * *

Hiruzen was rubbing his temples in complete and utter frustration as he looked at the squad of ANBU in front of him in pure contempt. It had been one hell of a week, first Naruto hadn't attended the Academy for a couple of days. No one paid too much attention to it since the boy was habitual of sometimes cutting classes. But at the third day his instructor Iruka Umino had grown worried since he had never cut classes two days in a row. He had come to him to ask him for his address which Hiruzen had gladly given him, he was happy that he was at least completely neutral to the boy and didn't resent him like the others. To even go as far as to check up on him showed him he had made the right choice while assigning him to be Naruto's instructor. But that was where his happiness had ended completely.

Iruka had come back telling him that the house was completely empty and he had entered through the open balcony door at the back of his house to see the house was devoid of any signs of the boy. All the simple groceries and milk in his fridge was at least four days old showing he hadn't come home ever since he had flunked the Academy.

As soon as Hiruzen had gotten gist of the situation he had sent ANBU teams to the whole village, in all the spots where he usually hung out at. His favorite abandoned training field. The clearings over the Hokage monuments, and lastly to the Ichiraku ramen stand. The stand owners themselves were concerned for the child since he never disappeared for more than a day without coming over to them. He had then sent out a village wide search with several ANBU teams and the barrier teams too were alerted of the problem and were told to report to him. The reports had been anything other than what he had been expecting.

Apparently Naruto had been missing from the village ever since the night before he had stopped coming to the Academy and the barrier team had reported the barrier being dropped for a few moments that night which meant his ANBU had been involved in it as well. He had assigned several tracking teams led by Kakashi Hatake himself and they had scoured the whole Land of Fire over the weak when finally Kakashi had come up to a clearing that was completely burnt with several unidentifiable body parts scattered around everywhere. It was evident that several exploding tags were sent off there but the thing that the report had horrified him the most was that Kakashi's Sharingan and the tracker team's Hyuga members had picked up faint traces of Demonic chakra in the clearing. Which meant only one thing...

Naruto Uzumaki was dead.

He slapped the report down on his desk and buried his face in his hands as guilt and regret washed over his heart. How had he been so careless about the child that his successor had entrusted to him? The last words of the late Yondaime Hokage rang through his head as the whispers were ringing in his head again and again.

 _Hiruzen take care of him. Have him seen as the hero who keeps this village standing just by breathing each day. He'll need the love and care to overcome his inner demons._

Those were the last words his late successor had whispered to him in his dying breaths and had entrusted the child who had been burdened with the weight of holding back the mightiest of the bijuu after mere hours of opening his newborn eyes to the world. The child who had been orphaned the moment the beast was sealed within him since his parents had given up their lives for the sake of the village. He had all but thrown the child to the wolves and left him alone after passing a single S-rank law. The worst kept S-rank law in the history of the village was more like it. He couldn't implement it completely, since if he did, the most probably more than half the village would have to have been executed and the village had been in enough turmoil as is over the previous years. After the Kyuubi attack they were fortunate that the other villages were severely weakened other than the point of small skirmishes or they would have been eradicated.

And then there was the Uchiha clan massacre. He still didn't know what happened and how one of his most trusted and young ANBU member had just snapped and eradicated her own clan save for her brother, from the face of the earth. The Uchiha clan, the strongest of the village's shinobi and the 'elites' were wiped out by a fourteen-year-old girl in a single night. Izumi Uchiha had gone rogue but had left a huge dent in the shinobi forces that were already largely depleted from the Kyuubi attack and still recovering. The Uchiha clan comprised of almost a fifth of the village's shinobi forces and the entire Uchiha Police Force came under their command. As soon as they were wiped out he had to give those duties to the ANBU and sever the already depleted strength even further and now this...

They had lost their lone jinchuriki. The Nine Tails had been in the village ever since the founding of the village but wasn't made common knowledge until Naruto's birth since he had to answer what became of the demon and how it was defeated. Many had seen the seal on the boy's stomach and he knew it was only a matter of time before all hell would break loose. So he did the only thing he could, he released his information but bound the older generation of shinobis who knew under the S-rank law that none of the night's events or the truth about Naruto's burden was to be talked about. Ever. But things didn't always go as planned and the village had called for his death. He had made an example by executing a chunin in public to get the situation under control and he had been temporarily successful.

But soon they started working ways around his law by shunning and ostracizing the child in ways he couldn't do anything. They threw him out of the orphanage when he was five and the orphanage wasn't bound to keep a child when he turned five if he wasn't adopted by then or the orphanage was full and couldn't care for the child anymore and apparently as soon as he turned five they were full. That was the night he still remembered, when the first mob had ensued in his beating on his birthday. He hadn't even gotten the gist of it for two weeks when on a walk he had seen the boy looking for food in garbage heaps near the Akimichi clan compounds. He had gotten him an apartment, it was a run down apartment near the Red Light district but that was the only abandoned building that didn't have any owner after the Kyuubi attack and that was willing to house him. He had tried tooth and nail to get the boy at least a decent home and a monthly stipend but the council had told him the village couldn't afford it for now anything other than the barest minimum. He knew it was pretty less for him to live alone but he would have to make do, the circumstances just weren't right.

His heart had ached when he had seen the boy so awestruck with even the barest minimum of what he had been able t provide and how he had looked at him as if he was the kindest soul on the planet for him. He hadn't gotten the whiff of his beating until he had heard so himself through Kakashi and when he had asked the boy he had told him it was right. He hadn't been able to do anything since all evidence was Naruto's verbal statement so the people had gone free much to his chagrin but he himself hadn't wanted to cause any problems for such trivial things since many of them were clan members.

He broke his thoughts off for a moment to see the ANBU still there and waved them off except for Kakashi. He gazed at the man's lone eye that for the first time in many years had lost it's aloof and lazy expression to a pained and regret filled one. He knew how he must be feeling, Naruto was the only thing that was left for him from the people he used to care for in the past and now he was gone too. He was once again broken off his thoughts when he heard his broken and pained voice cut through the silence.

"Hokage-sama..." he said in a sad and broken voice and Hiruzen gave the man his full attention and nodded.

"I would like to quit as the captain of ANBU black ops and the ANBU altogether." he said making Hiruzen's eyes to widen in shock and disbelief. The village was still too weak and he needed his best at his disposal especially the last Sharingan wielder of the village. The Sharingan was an impeccable tool for Konoha ever since it's foundation. From infiltration to information gathering and to copy the enemies' new jutsu it's applications were many. And after the last years unexpected massacre he was the only one left and he had decided to keep him in the black ops for a few more years before turning him into a full time jounin.

"Kakashi you are not in your right state of mind..." he started but was cut off with an immediate shake of head and refusal.

"No Hokage-sama this is my final decision. I quit the black ops effective immediately." he said making Hiruzen's heart to drop. The village was being weakened even further now and he needed him in the black ops.

"Kakashi take some time..." but he stopped when Kakashi put his mask on the table with a pain ridden face. He turned around and walked to the door when he stopped for a moment.

"Is there anything else Hokage-sama?" he asked and Hiruzen sighed sadly putting the mask in his desk and shook his head sadly.

"No Kakashi this is it. But come to me in a week to get your normal jounin assignments from me." he said getting a nod in return when he spoke up again.

"Kakashi..." he said making the man stop and look at him. "... It wasn't your fault, you couldn't..." he was cut off when Kakashi voiced his own thoughts.

"No, it was my fault..." he started and Hiruzen wanted to speak when he continued. "... I could have adopted him, but I was too lost in my own despair to realize how much the child was suffering on his own. I should have been there for him, but I was not. If I had been then he would be at the Academy today. I didn't even like to look at him because it brought up too many memories but now I don't have to worry about that anymore." he said regretfully making Hiruzen to fall silent. He couldn't say anything to that knowing the man was right and there was no excuse to it.

"I have failed sensei and his legacy. I wish he would meet his parents in heaven and live a good life because I don't think I could ever face them there with the mistakes I've made, especially this one that I had eight years to realize.' he said mournfully and walked out closing the door behind him. He plopped down in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration when he heard a knock and the secretary came in.

"Hokage-sama the elders are here as you called them..." she said and he nodded, motioning for her to send them in as his three old teammates came inside and sat down. He was about to speak up and put up the seals when the window slid open making him sigh. There was only one person who came that way and he knew it was his pupil.

"Yo Sarutobi-sensei you called?" said the chirpy and happy voice of Jiraiya. He turned around to look at his student sadly when Jiraiya's face became serious seeing his grim expression. He came in when Hiruzen put up the privacy seals and Jiraiya stood, leaning by the window.

"I'm glad you're here Jiraiya, this way I won't have to explain the situation again and again..." he said gaining confused looks from all three making him sigh.

"Stop delaying Sarutobi-sensei, I came here as fast as I could leaving behind my spy network and precious research, so get to the point already." he said gaining disgusted looks from two elders and a sigh from Hiruzen at his pupil's antics while Danzo was just a bit annoyed on the inside at the lack of patience in the pervert.

"Very well then. I'll get straight to the point. Naruto Uzumaki is no longer with us, he was killed five days ago near the borders of Kusa and Iwa..." he said gaining wide eyes from all of them, including Danzo. A moment later Koharu found her voice.

"S-Sarutobi what do y-you mean no longer with us..." she was cut off as he clarified his words for them.

"Naruto Uzumaki is dead." he said firmly in a grim voice making the entire room to fall silent. A moment later a huge amount of killing intent washed over the sealed room and throughout the tower making most of the tower fall to their knees while the people in the room were experienced enough to not be affected but still were nervous as they turned to Jiraiya who slammed his palm on his table startling them all.

"What do you mean he's dead? How could he be dead?" he growled in fury making Hiruzen sigh.

"A group of many shinobi including a squad of ANBU abducted the boy and murdered him. There were signs of struggle and demonic chakra but the place had been detonated with several exploding tags making nothing to be left. I'm afraid he's dead..." he was cut off once again as Jiraiya growled even further.

"HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN? HE WAS MINATO'S LEGACY DAMN IT! IT WAS YOUR DUTY TO PROTECT..." he was cut off when Hiruzen leaked his own killing intent to match his own.

"Don't you dare put this all on me Jiraiya. I tried what I could for the boy with most of the council against me and the boy..." he said making the three elders flinch at his accusation but knew it was true when he turned his furious eyes to his pupil making him a bit nervous.

"And you were his godfather for Kami's sake! I told you to adopt him or take him with you, I would have made it a sort of training trip and given you permission making up something with the council. But no, you were not fit enough to take care of a child after all he would have come in your way of spy network and especially your precious 'research'..." he said making the Sannin flinch and avert his eyes from his sensei in shame as he continued his rant.

"I begged you to take him and adopt him. You were the only family left to the boy and could have shielded him outside the village. No one could have hurt the child with you watching over him and traveling from place to place. Hell, you never even showed your damn face to the boy in the past eight years and you are blaming me?" he asked incredulously making the Sannin to fall silent. Hiruzen sighed, he had said too much. But at least Kakashi admitted his own faults, he was trying to pin it all on him. All of their eyes were brought to a new face when a stoic voice spoke up.

"This in not good Sarutobi, we have lost the Nine Tails and our only jinchuriki. We will be seen as much too weak if other nations get sniff of it. You should have let me have the boy all those years ago..." he said but was cut off by two growls by the men in front of him.

"And have him be made your emotionless drone ?" asked Jiraiya in disbelief with Hiruzen agreeing with his pupil while Danzo scoffed, startling them.

"At least the boy would have been alive..." he said making the two of them flinch while he continued.

"You let the boy be killed and lost us a major asset of the village that has been with us since the foundation of the village. And now not only have we lost the Nine Tails but the last heir to the royal line of the Uzumaki and the Yondaime's legacy is forever lost to us." he said making the two of them to fall silent. He however continued.

"The Nine tails will take nine years to reform and that leaves a huge power gap in our strength. However I have a solution..." he said getting curious looks from all four.

"The Yondaime Mizukage was recently killed and his bijuu will reform in the Land of Water within two years. We can have it captured and let ourselves have a new jinchuriki..." he said but was cut off by Koharu.

"Won't that almost be declaring war on Kiri?" she asked and he shook his had, startling them all.

"No, they want nothing to do with the Sanbi ever since their Mizukage went insane with it's power. And moreover Kiri is much too weak after the end of the bloodline purges to go to a war with a major hidden village. We need a jinchuriki or if Iwa and Kumo get sniff of this we will be at war and will be the laughing stock of the entire elemental nations with no bijuu and the complete loss of the Uchiha clan within a single year." he said making them all nod. However much they disliked it, he was right and they needed a jinchuriki. But the question fell to who?

"And who would you suggest Danzo?" asked Homura and all of them looked at him curiously..he closed his lone eye with a silent thought and spoke up.

"The jinchuriki must be a child so their chakras could meld well together. Moreover, we need his utmost loyalty to the village and for the village to respect him while looking at him over the beast he contains so as to not repeat the mistake that happened this time." he said getting nods from them all as they understood his reasons.

"The child should be of a high standing and of noble blood with strong ties to the village..." he said getting nods again though Jiraiya was getting sick of it.

"Alright we get it already who do you propose. Get to the point." he said getting a nod from the cripple.

"I propose Konohamaru Sarutobi, Hiruzen's newborn grandson..." he said turning the whole room deathly silent. Hiruzen was wide eyed and stunned. A moment later his eyes narrowed in anger.

"And you think I would let my grandson live the life of a jinchuriki..." his thoughts were cut off by Danzo.

"The Yondaime did it with his own son. How is this any different then? Are you not the Hokage? The boy will be respected as your grandson and the heir to the Sarutobi clan, while he will be trained and protected properly in your clan too. Plus, a jinchuriki has always been created with close ties to the Kage of the village since the founding of Konoha. The Sanbi is not as strong as the Kyuubi so Konohamaru will have no problem in training to control it unlike the Kyuubi. Moreover, there is no animosity for the Sanbi like there was for the Kyuubi. This is the most logical choice for the good of the village. Think with your brain and not your heart Hiruzen." he said stoically and Hiruzen wanted to rebuke, not wanting his grandson to share the same fate as Naruto but Koharu and Homura spoke up.

"This is what is best for the village Hiruzen..." said Homura and Koharu nodded.

"Danzo is right and don't worry Konohamaru will still have his clan and you to look after him. Plus, he will be protected in your shadow." she said making Hiruzen fall silent while Jiraiya kept a hand over his shoulder.

"Sensei as much as I hate to say it, they are right." he said solemnly and Hiruzen nodded with a sigh. He was the Hokage and had to think of the village after all.

"Very well then. Danzo your ROOT is functional again but directly under my command for the time being. Retrieve the Sanbi and me and Jiraiya will make sure the sealing is done properly. Let's keep this to ourselves until then and inform the council after the sealing is done. And we must make sure to show them he is the savior of the village unlike our previous mistake." he said getting nods from them all. Hiruzen watched them leave and Jiraiya sat on the couch while he let out a tired sigh.

"Now I know what Minato must have felt all those years ago..." he said getting a solemn nod from his pupil.

"Yes, I'm not sure if I would ever be able to forgive myself for failing the two of them and their son like that." said Jiraiya with a small tear in his eye getting a nod from Hiruzen.

"Me neither Jiraiya, me neither." he said grimly as they sat in silence thinking of the events that were unfolding in front of their eyes through the 'death' of the supposedly dead 'Prince of Konoha'.

* * *

 **Amegakure no sato**

* * *

 **Next Morning**

* * *

 **God Tower**

* * *

 **Naruto's room**

* * *

Naruto woke up with a cute small yawn when he felt the sunshine hit his eyes. He felt tired, so tired. He hadn't felt so tire in any time of his life before. He tried to sit up and leaned against the headboard of the bed as his mind came back to it's senses. He was startled and clutched the blanket to his chest in fright when he heard a voice cut through the silence of the room.

"So I see you're awake." said a stoic and soft female voice. He watched with innocent wide baby blue eyes at the raven haired girl sitting on a chair and realized he was in an unfamiliar place now. He remembered her groggily. She was the last vision he saw last night before blacking out he thought.

"Where am I?" he asked innocently in a soft tone, not wanting to offend the girl while she stared at him blankly.

"That is none of your concerns." she said emotionlessly making him fall silent. He knew she won't answer him anything but why was he here?

"How do you feel?" she asked blankly while he looked at her surprised. No body had ever bothered to ask that before whenever he got hurt.

"Tired." he said softly getting a nod from the girl when a swirling vortex appeared in the room and Naruto saw an orange masked man come into existence out of thin air while he looked on in amazement. He must be pretty strong to know such a cool jutsu he mused in excitement when he saw the man look at him with his lone right eye.

" _So this is Naruto huh? Looks just like sensei and Kushina-sama. He really is their legacy, no doubt about it. This brings back old memories."_ he thought looking at the boy. He walked up to him and put a hand on the shoulder of the frightened boy and saw him flinch and back away, with completely terrified eyes. He was confused at his reaction, he hadn't intended to even startle the boy. He sat beside him and saw him back away a bit making him frown under his mask.

" _And here I was thinking of getting to know my sensei's son a little..."_ he thought in annoyance. He saw the terrified eyes of the boy and when he tried to move his hand closer to him, he watched him back away slightly making frown more.

" _That's strange."_ both Uchiha's thought at the same time. He saw him back up into the corner of the bed and tried to calm his down by putting a strong and firm grip of reassurance on his shoulder as he saw his eyes tear up and his body to tremble. He didn't let go and tried to calm him down but Naruto started to hyperventilate a bit. He let go immediately and saw him whimper in the corned with his knees to his chest. Izumi saw this and motioned for him to stand up and sat by his side softly. She looked at him with a slightly softened gaze to calm him down.

"Naruto!?" she called softly getting his gaze to turn to her and smiled a small smile when she saw him sniffle cutely with those shimmering eyes. She tried to put a hand over his and saw him flinch slightly. She backed up her hand and looked at the masked man while he nodded. He had seen the same reactions before from traumatized children who were caught in war prisons before and endured heavy beatings or abuse.

"Haphephobia." he stated and she nodded back. Looks like whatever happened to get his clothes to get him so bloodied and his demonic chakra to take over had caused him to develop a fear of touch from others she mused looking at the frightened boy who was curled up in a corner.

"Naruto, look at me." she whispered softly getting his eyes to turn to her and picked up a tear from his cheek without touching it and saw he didn't flinch just looked at her innocently and a bit frightened.

"I'm not going to hurt you." she whispered softly and he shook his head curling up more making her even more confused.

"They always say that before they hurt me even more." he sniffled making her frown a bit. The masked man too was frowning at his words. What had those fools at the village been doing to the boy and what had happened to cause... This?

"Who says that Naruto? Did anyone hurt you?" she asked softly in her voice with a hint of warmth in it making him look at her with a nod.

"Everyone in the village. Those shinobi and ANBU yesterday too said the same thing before they hurt me even more." he sniffled cutely making both glance at each other with hardened eyes. So they had been torturing the child?

"Did they hurt you yesterday?" she asked softly and he nodded.

"Yes, the hit me. I don't know for how long but they hit me. It hurt, it hurt so much..." he sniffled with a whimper making her look at him with a soft smile and sad eyes. He was so innocent she mused looking at him.

"Don't worry no one is going to hit you here. I promise you that." she whispered making him look at her surprised. However they had said this before too.

"I don't trust you." he sniffled making her smile turn downwards a bit and she opened her arms motioning for him to come to her.

"Come over here." she whispered making him look at her surprised. Did she want to hug him like all those he had seen in the village. But what if she hurt him? He shook his head making her frown. No one said no to her when she wanted something she thought angrily. She caught one of his hands and pulled him into her arms harshly. She hugged him tightly, burying his head in her chest while he whimpered and tried to wriggle out of her grip but she was Izumi Uchiha. She kept her firm hold on him and felt his breathing to become erratic and his whimpers to increase when she ran her fingers to through his hair and kissed his head softly.

"Shh calm down it's alright. No one will hurt you as long as I'm here." she whispered softly as she felt him calm down a bit. She saw him looking at her with frightened eyes and wiped of his tears with her thumbs while cupping his cute whiskered and puffy cheeks.

"Really? Do you promise?" he asked timidly and she nodded with a small smile when he wrapped himself up in her arms much to her surprise. She hugged him back and rubbed his back softly while he calmed down in her embrace. The masked man saw it and swirled out of existence knowing the child needed time to come to terms and maybe Izumi and her strong attitude would help him a bit.

"Who are you?" he sniffled in her embrace while she held him close to her. For some reason she liked holding his cute cuddly form like this. If it had been anyone else he would have been six feet under in a lot of pieces. But she didn't mind this since he was too innocent. And she had to admit, she liked it.

"I'm Izumi Uchiha, isn't it polite to give your name as well?" she asked blankly and he looked at her with a sheepish smile and nodded, remembering Ayame telling him the same thing.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, it's nice to meet you. Will you be my friend?" he asked shyly with those wide innocent eyes and she looked at him with a raised eyebrow and after a moment nodded.

"Alright I don't mind." she said seeing no problem with it. He would be afraid of her soon enough when he got to know her she mused when she saw him smile brightly. She was his first friend! He had finally made a friend!

"Can I get something to eat?" he asked nervously. Maybe she would give him some food, she seemed nice not at all like all those villagers he mused. She nodded again with a raised eyebrow. The child was taking her for granted, well that was amusing to say the least. No matter, she'll bear with it for now.

"Alright let's go." she said and he nodded getting up. He put on his worn out sandals kept by the side of his bed and walked beside her. He walked through the hallways with her, it was a lot different from the Hokage Tower back home he mused. A lot darker actually. They steeped outside the tower and Naruto saw it was raining but much to his shock he wasn't getting wet!

"Umm Izumi-chan, why are we not wet?" he asked curiously looking at the rain drop on his hand and she was surprised at the affectionate -chan at the end of her name but let it slide for now.

"It's Pain's jutsu that causes the rain. Anyone who he knows is here and doesn't mind it does not get wet while those who do not get wet and Pain knows exactly where they are in a moment." she explained and he looked at her surprised. It sounded so cool, these people looked to be really nice and powerful as he saw no villager was glaring or saying those bad things to him instead looking at him in curiosity. They came to a small Dango establishment and walked in. Izumi took a table at the corner and ordered an order of Dango and red bean soup for him and tea for herself. Naruto was nervous if they might throw him out but everyone was smiling at him. He saw the food brought in front of him and took a skewer, chewing off a Dango with a bright smile.

"Sugoi! It's so good, just like Ichiraku's and the people here are really nice too." he said happily eating his food while Izumi watched him eat and ordered more for him... Five more times much to her surprise but knew he must have been hungry since yesterday and after that beating and the sealing off his demonic chakra he needed the food to make up for it. Plus, the way he was looking at the simple food like it was the best thing ever made her heart clench for some reason but she didn't dwell on it for too long. She paid for their meal and walked out while the owner asked for him to come again getting a nod from Naruto. They walked through the streets of the village as she saw his tattered clothes and brought him to a clothes store. She bought him some simple pairs of white T-shirts and blue shorts and a new pair of sandals. She watched him touch his clothes like they were made of gold and thank her heart fully well making her sadden and happy at the same time. They walked back to the Tower while Naruto nervously held her hand and walked beside her happily. People here were really nice and he like it.

It was strange, a small boy from the biggest village in the elemental nations was getting comfortable in the village owned by the leader of the world's most terrifying criminal organization and felt safe with the most dangerous kunoichi in all of the elemental nations. His life surely had gotten...

 _Interesting_

* * *

 _ **Author's notes : There is the nest chapter. Now as for the various questions asked to me :**_

* * *

 _ *** Why does Naruto have only one Rinne-Sharingan?**_

 _ **\- Well for one even after consuming the fruit Madara, Kaguya both obtained only one Rinne-Sharingan since it was that powerful in canon. And for the second mismatched eyes are cool in my**_

 _ **opinion with a lone dangerous eye different than the other. I mean who doesn't find that cool? So it will be like that since it is my story and that's the way I like it.**_

* * *

 _ *** What is the age of Izumi in this fic?**_

 _ **\- Fourteen-years old. Killed off her clan being an ANBU captain at thirteen and is six years older than our blond ball of sunshine.**_

* * *

 _ *** Naruto's weakness : Haphephobia, the fear of touch or contact. The beating and abuse finally broke his will after the last encounter and now he'll only be comfortable near Izumi. This should make my plot really interesting. As my readers already know, my protagonists have some weaknesses and are not gods in any fics and this is no exception so this will be Naruto's handicap. And Naruto will remain innocent and will develop a dark side but never will it define him. He will retain his innocence. So those looking for insane or cruel Naruto, sorry but there are enough of those in the Akatsuki to make up for it.**_

* * *

 _ **Now that the questions are done I suppose the chapter was up to my satisfaction. So let's see what the future awaits our hero in the subsequent chapters. Well if you like it and want to keep reading it further, you know which button to hit to leave a small review. As you can see from the questions above I read them and also answer them. So any suggestions are welcome too. Well until next time, keep reading and reviewing Ja Ne ;)**_


	3. Chapter 3 Joining the Den

**Naruto : Life in the Akatsuki**

* * *

 **Amegakure no sato**

* * *

 **God Tower**

* * *

The hallways of the most important tower in the village scurried by rain 24x7 were as deadly quiet as they always were. But sound of two pairs of footsteps could be heard through the silence. Two figures walked through them. One with shining silky raven hair and her stoic onyx black eyes staring straight ahead. The couple of guards in there gave way as soon as their gazes landed on the deadly Uchiha princess. But what completely stupefied them was the blonde child walking by her side. Hand in hand, yes that was what had the completely dumbfounded. They saw his innocent wide baby blue eyes scanning the tower with the innocence only a child like him could possess with that small smile on his face.

He looked at the two in curiosity and they nodded at him with a smile, still wondering how he had gotten so close to the 'Black Widow of the Leaf' and was still breathing. As soon as they smiled at him, they saw the boy unconsciously take a step sideways near her as a precaution making the raven haired girl's eyes to travel at him. She pulled her arm around his shoulder and turned her eyes to the guards who were smiling nervously and shaking like dry leaves. Her eyes narrowed at the two when she walked past them making the two gulp. As soon as she passed them they gazed at the two figures and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Man that was scary, the kid is something else to be so close to her." one of them said while the other nodded in complete agreement.

"Yeah, I couldn't even stand a glance from her and did you see how she wrapped him up like he was a possession of hers. Man I pity that innocent boy." the second said making the first nod.

"I feel for the kid, he won't last long with her." he said and the two walked on their patrolling routes in silence.

The couple of pair of footsteps made their way down the hallways towards the large set of doors at the end of them. The pair of baby blue eyes turned upwards a but to look at his companion.

"Where are we going Izumi-chan?" his soft angelic voice escaped his lips while tugging her cloak cutely. She looked at him blankly and narrowed her eyes at the child, pulling him closer by his shoulder with her arm.

"Just keep quiet and stay with me." she said emotionlessly making Naruto look down and nod timidly. He knew she must be taking him someplace important after all the nice things she did for him. She looked down and was surprised that he didn't even protest or ask her again like she had hoped for.

"Aren't you scared where I might be taking you?" she asked stoically with a hint of curiosity and he gave her a heart warming foxy grin.

"I trust you, you're really nice." he said softly and looked ahead at the huge doors making her heart clench. How could he trust her? He didn't even realize he was a rabbit in a lion's den filled up to the brim with predators who hunted his kind. He was walking with one right now?

But those innocent eyes looking at everything so curiously made her pull him close and rub his arm softly. He snuggled in her hug happily making her lips twitch upwards a bit but she masked it as they reached the doors. She opened the door and stepped in with the blonde boy by her side. He was too naive to give his trust to the likes of her so easily she mused and stopped after walking in the middle of the large room with Naruto holding her hand and looking in front of him.

He saw a man sitting on a throne with the same cloak as Izumi-chan with his eyes closed. The man had orange hair that were pretty cool in his opinion, and strange black piercings on his face. He saw the man's eyes snap open to reveal the concentric ringed pattern of his legendary Rinnegan into his view making him look at the man curiously.

His eyes were pretty weird in his opinion, even more weird than those weird white eyed people in the village. His eyes turned to him with a calculative gaze making him look down and biting his lip in nervousness. He glanced to the side to see Izumi looking at the man in the same way she always did making him calm down. He couldn't be that bad if she knew him, could he?

"You were supposed to bring him to me as soon as he woke up." his voice cut through the silence making Naruto look up to see he was addressing his companion and heard her answer almost instantaneously.

"He was hungry with torn clothes from the events of the previous nights. I wanted his condition to be at least presentable before I brought him to meet you." she said smoothly without an ounce of hesitance at his cold and accusing tone causing the man to narrow his eyes at her and look at Naruto sharply making him move closer to her. His eyes narrowed further at him as he spoke up.

"I see..." he said keeping his gaze on the blonde while his cheek was in his hand and he tapped the armrest of his throne calmly as if pondering on something and nodded to himself.

"So Naruto..." he said making the boy's eyes to widen in surprise and he cut him off before he could continue.

"You know my name?" he asked innocently making the Rinnegan wielder raise an eyebrow in surprise. No one cut him off when he spoke until this moment. It seemed the boy was blissfully unaware that he was speaking to the God of Amegakure, but he would let it slide for now.

"I know many things about you Naruto, but that is not the point." he said making Naruto nod innocently and fall silent. The man seemed smart, just like the old man back in his village from the confidence and intelligence in his voice, but he was reassured to see he held no malice while addressing him directly. He was about to speak when the soft angelic voice once more cut him off before he could.

"Who are you?" he asked in innocent curiosity making Pain look at him in amusement. The child didn't have an ounce of fear apart from the little nervousness even after being in an unknown place and in front of the man who had him captivated at the moment.

"I'm Pain, the God of Amegakure and the one who would restore the peace back to this world." he introduced himself when Naruto looked at him with wide eyes. He smirked, now the child would understand how...

"Are you hurt?" he asked cutting his thoughts off making Pain look at him in surprise and shook his head.

"No, I'm not hurt. I doubt anything could hurt me. But why do you ask?" he asked curiously making Naruto tilt his head to the side cutely making him feel quite stupid honestly with those wide shimmering eyes.

"But you just said you were in Pain." he said making Pain sigh while Izumi's lips threatened to twitch upwards in amusement. The kid was something else, this was the most she had seen the leader of Akatsuki say in a conversation not pertaining to missions and he was still looking to satisfy his answers she mused looking at the Rinnegan wielder.

"I'm not in pain, I am Pain. That's my name - Pain." he said putting emphasis in the last sentence making Naruto nod innocently. Pain smiled that he understood and was about to speak when once again the blonde cut him off before he could speak up.

"Pretty stupid name." he said making Pain's eye twitch as the blonde continued. "Are you sure because that doesn't sound like a name? Kurama said the same thing before I offered to give him a new name. Do you want one too?" he asked curiously making Pain's eye twitch dangerously while Izumi smiled and put her hand on his head.

"That is what I am called and I do not need a new name. If you don't like it call me by my real name Nagato. Is that alright?" he asked and sighed when he got a happy nod from the child in front of him.

"And who is Kurama?" he asked making Naruto smile happily but a moment later his face turned serious. People always hated him for having Kurama and what if they too did the same? He didn't want to hide anything about him, it wasn't like he was ashamed or anything but he didn't want to be hurt gain like before.

"He's my friend." he said honestly getting a nod from the orange haired man. He decided to get on with the topic at hand before the blonde's curiosity got the better of him again.

"Naruto do you know why you are here?" he asked him seriously while Naruto shook his head. He had expected as much and continued.

"Do you know what you contain then?" he asked and narrowed his eyes when he saw the boy stiffen and grow nervous. He shook his head nervously trying to hide it as Pain spoke up.

"I know that you carry the Nine Tails in you." he said making Naruto's eyes water and look down in shame and fear. He untangled his hand from Izumi's knowing she too would hate him now like all the others and call him a demon. She looked at him surprised and at his nervous action as he looked ready to hide within himself.

"Please don't hurt me, I'm not a demon." he whispered softly making the two of them shocked. Pain's eyes looked at him calmly.

"We do not hate you Naruto, but how do you know about your tenant?" he asked to get more information from him. Naruto looked up surprised as he saw them in completely the same position as before and smiled a little. People here were really nice, especially Izumi-chan he thought as she stepped by his side again and he took her hand in his with a smile.

"He helped me when those shinobi from my village tried to hurt me. I don't remember how I got here or how I escaped but Kurama must have helped me." he said making Pain raise an eyebrow. So this 'Kurama' he was talking about earlier was the Nine Tails then? He certainly was an interesting one he mused to have befriended the most fearsome of the nine.

"I see, so you two are friends then?" he asked getting a happy nod from the boy.

"Hai, and he's really nice too. People don't understand him I think, he's really smart and nice. Though he teases me about my height." he said puffing his cheeks remembering his conversation with the fox. The two Akatsuki members looked at each other and then at him in complete amusement. It was as if he was talking about a long lost friend. But now to get to serious matters...

"Naruto you don't remember anything other than your conversation and befriending of the fox then?" he asked making Naruto a bit nervous. He bit his lip and shook his head, he didn't want to tell anyone about his father though the conversation was so short. But he didn't trust him enough yet. He would tell Izumi-chan later when he was alone. Pain narrowed his eyes at the blonde knowing he was lying and stood up.

"So you wish to hide things and lie to me then?" he said dangerously making Naruto feel scared from the aura the man radiated when he started walking to him. "Very well, I have other ways to get it out of you too." he said walking to him as Naruto was wrapped up around Izumi's side in complete fright. His body trembled and he buried his face in her stomach when he saw his hand coming towards his head when Izumi's voice cut in making him stop his hand.

"He has haphephobia." she stated flatly, running her fingers through the hair of the frightened boy who was snuggled in her chest to calm him down. Pain stopped his hand in mid stride and looked at her curiously.

"Then why doesn't he pull away from you?" he asked calmly standing in front of them making Izumi look down at the sniffling blonde mop of hair in her chest.

"He trusts me." she said honestly in her blank tone making Pain to turn surprised with a raise of an eyebrow and nodded a moment later.

"He has to answer to me or I must get my answers otherwise." he said making Izumi look at him blankly while brushing the hair of the blonde boy softly.

"What does it matter what he and the fox talked about anyways?" she asked flatly making him fall silent and walk back. She was right and he decided to ask questions with a different approach. She was right he should ask what mattered to his goals first.

"Naruto..." he said making the sniffing boy look at him still clung onto Izumi and looked at him inquisitively.

"What do you think of this place?" he asked making Naruto look at him surprised at his question and think about it for a moment.

"Well I really like the trees and view of my village..." he said honestly making Pain to narrow his eyes at the blonde when he continued.

"But the people here are really nice, no one glares at me and the people at the restaurant and clothes shop were really nice too. But Izumi-chan's the nicest, she's my friend." he said happily making Izumi smile and for Pain to nod. Maybe, he could turn it like he wanted to he mused.

"Naruto how would you like to join our organization?" he asked bluntly making Naruto look at him surprised.

"Organization?" he asked innocently getting a nod from the purple eyed man.

"Yes, an organization. We are called the Akatsuki. We work towards a common goal and are comprised of six individuals as of yet but our complete formation will be of ten. We only recruit the best of the best and I wish for you to join us." he said calmly making Naruto bite his lip. It was the first time someone had willingly invited him to join anything but he still had questions.

"Is Izumi-chan a part of Akatsuki too?" he asked looking at Izumi and got a nod from her when he heard Pain speak up.

"Anyone who wears a cloak like Izumi and myself is a part of our organization. Do you have any other questions?" he asked calmly getting a nod from the boy.

"Why would you want me to join you? I mean you said you only recruited the best and well... I had the lowest scores in the Academy. Everyone said I couldn't do anything and I tried to prove them wrong but they were right, I tried really hard but I never really could get anything right. No one helped me anyways..." he whispered a bit shamefully making Pain to narrow his eyes while Izumi frowned. From what she saw last night, even if the boy wasn't in control, his body was really agile and fit for his age showing how much he had trained and how fast his instincts were. Pain too had the same thoughts and from what he knew of the boy's heritage he should have been a natural born prodigy even without that intriguing new bloodline of his.

"Naruto..." he said gaining the attention of the boy who was looking at his feet shamefully after admitting his failures. They were nice people and had taken care of him to the point of even inviting them to join their organization and he didn't want to lie to them and be a burden on them.

"You have potential. I see it, Izumi sees it, you are destined to be great with the right and proper guidance that we will provide you with. I do not make mistakes so don't doubt yourself." he said making Naruto look at him in shock when he heard Izumi speak up.

"We believe in you Naruto, so believe in yourself." she said stoically making his heart warm and a bright smile to light up over his face. He felt so happy, it was the first time someone had believed in him.

"Arigato." he whispered softly making even Pain's lips twitch upwards and nod.

"So what do you say?" he asked curiously and Naruto thought about his village and his dream to be Hokage. If he joined them then how would he become the Hokage? But then he remembered what had happened to him and how people treated him there. Along with how Kurama had told his father of the village trying to manipulate him and they always hurt him or outright ignored his existence. But these people were willing to accept him and they were really nice even after knowing about how he held Kurama in him.

"What are your goals?" he asked the last question that came in his mind before he gave his answer causing the two Akatsuki to look at each other with smirks and nodded in a silent conversation. He was on the verge of joining them as they saw his eyes that showed almost his any emotion in his heart.

"We wish to establish true peace in the world, to end wars and suffering of people by our efforts just like how I have ended this land's suffering by defeating Hanzou who had plagues these lands for so long with his tyrannical ways." he said honestly keeping the art about collecting the bijuus to himself and Naruto nodded looking at his feet for a few moments. He didn't want to return to the village and get hurt again. Plus, Izumi was here and she was his friend. The only one he felt so safe with and these people were really nice and said they would help him get strong for a goal that sounded rally nice to him. He looked at the girl beside him who smiled a little and nodded pulling his head to her chest knowing he had made his mind up. She kept him close to her making him snuggle in her arms and gave a nod to the Rinnegan wielder who nodded back.

"Very well then..." he said calmly making Naruto look at him as he turned around in her arms while she had her arms around him protectively from behind, keeping him close to her while she pressed herself on his back completely..

"Naruto you are now a part of the Akatsuki. I am the leader to this organization and you shall be working under my orders. In a sense I am your Kage from now..." he said getting a nod from Naruto from the simple explanation. He looked at him curiously when he unsealed a storage scroll and out popped a cloak, the same as the two of them along with a ring with the Kanji for 'scarlet' inscribed over it. He walked up to him and handed him the cloak that Naruto took now feeling so happy that he was a part of such an important group.

"Naruto, this ring is really important..." he said handing the ring to Izumi who showed it to him and he looked at him curiously, awaiting an explanation.

"Each member wears one of these on a different finger and it will be crucial in a major goal we have in the future. This ring should always be on you, it helps me to locate you and for us to communicate over long distances too." he said and Naruto nodded when Izumi took his left hand in hers and much to her own embarrassment put it in his third finger. It had to be that one didn't it? She thought in annoyance but saw the boy looking at the ring innocently with a smile making her smile herself.

"Now, Naruto as for the other matters, Akatsuki members always operate in pairs and since you trust Izumi so much she will be responsible for your training and be your partner from today on wards. I suppose it would suit you well?" he asked and smiled a little in amusement at the bright smile and happy nod from the blonde when Izumi put her hand on his head and nodded.

"Now Naruto I suppose you would be loyal and truthful to the Akatsuki?" he asked seriously getting a happy nod from the boy.

"I'll be loyal to you Nagato-san I promise." he chirped happily getting a smile from the wielder of the Rinnegan.

"You should call me Pain or Leader-sama Naruto." he said in a half-hearted scolding voice and Izumi watched in amusement when he tilted his head to the side quite cutely in her opinion. She knew something amusing was coming like the last time and he didn't disappoint her in the slightest.

"Don't you like your name Nagato-san?" he asked innocently making Pain's eye twitch. He really had something against his name in his heart didn't he? He thought in annoyance.

"No, Naruto I am fine with my name but you should..." he trailed off and sighed when he saw the completely lost look on the blonde's face.

"Call me what you like just go..." he said with a sigh waving his hand dismissively and Izumi smiled in amusement. He really was something to get under his nerves and let him call the leader of Akatsuki whatever he liked so easily. She turned to the blonde by her side and put a hand on his shoulder making him look at her with those wide baby blue eyes.

"Izumi take Naruto to our River country base and get him acquainted with some of our bases and the new locations that might help him in the future. Meet Kakuzu there too he said something about needing help so it will be along with this. Start his training along the way too." he said making her nod and pulled the blonde closer in a warm embrace and put her chin on his head.

"Hold on tight." she whispered softly and he nodded in her chest, wrapping his arms around her slender waist when he felt a strange pull and closed his eyes. Izumi and Naruto disappeared in a crow **Shunshin** whilePain sat on his throne with a small smile. The blonde was quite close to the Uchiha princess from what he saw and she was taking full advantage of it. It would make his loyalty quite solid in his opinion and he was the first she had accepted as a partner after outright refusing Tobi and Kisame as complete waste of times.

"So he accepted our proposal." said a stoic female voice from behind him and he nodded having already sensing her come from a mile away.

"Indeed he did just like Izumi said he would. With the proper training and a bit of nice treatment his loyalty to us will be nigh unbreakable. The Leaf was a fool to let such a boy with such potential be treated like he was, but his vulnerability after this little fiasco was to our advantage too. The boy absolutely adores Izumi and she doesn't mind his presence in the slightest. With her training he will be a great ally to us. It's a shame he holds the Kyuubi or he might have lived to see me achieve true peace. But alas, sacrifices must be made for true peace." he said calmly while the blue haired, amber eyed girl nodded coming in front of him.

"But he has some serious confidence issues along with that haphephobia of his." she said stoically getting a nod in return from the purple eyed man.

"Yes, but Izumi will take care of those in time and his haphephobia might be useful to him." he said making her raise an eyebrow at his words.

"How so?" she asked curiously making Pain smirk.

"He will never let his guard drop to anyone which makes it quite a nice and attentive weakness to have. If treated nicely it may be cured to a point where it will be useful to him. Even my Rinnegan can't heal mental conditions, this he must overcome on his own Konan." he said calmly getting a nod from Konan. But she still had several doubts in her mind about the new blonde addition to their organization.

"And what if he becomes too attached to Izumi?" she asked stoically making Pain smirk much to her confusion.

"He is already too attached to her Konan. And Izumi never lets anyone get too close to her, after all we do remember what she did to her own clan and family don't we?" he asked getting a nod from Konan. She really was vicious in that department and realized he was right and maybe he will be quite useful to them.

"I trust your judgment then Nagato, we'll see how it goes.." she said getting no response back from the Rinnegan wielder.

* * *

 **Naruto's room**

* * *

Naruto and Izumi walked back into his room with Naruto sporting a happy grin as he kept on gazing at his ring and cloak in amazement. He didn't even want to wear them, they looked so cool in his opinion. But Izumi had told him that he must not remove the ring from his finger at any costs. He sat on his single bed and looked at the stoic Uchiha princess with a bright smile making her frown. She just didn't understand why he wasn't intimidated by her in the least. Perhaps, when he knew who she really was his actions would change she mused and stared at his smiling face blankly.

"Sleep." she said stoically making Naruto tilt his head to the side cutely.

"But I'm not sleepy." he said with a cute pout making her narrow her eyes. She had commanded him not asked him if he was sleepy or not. She would have to train him in following orders to if he wanted to survive as her partner in the near future.

"We are leaving early tomorrow morning and will travel all day so sleep." she said blankly with narrowed eyes when he shook his head in defiance.

"But-" he was cut off when his head was pinned to the pillow and a hand wrapped around his throat. His wide innocent baby blue eyes stared in the deadly pair of Sharingan eyes with a startled look.

"Do not make me repeat myself. Now sleep." she commanded in a voice that held nor room for arguments. He said nothing and nodded looking at her with hurt eyes and turned around in his blanket, his face away from her. Her heart clenched when she saw his eyes and the pained expression they held. But he should have listened the first time.

"Naruto." she said stoically and got no answer from the blonde instead of his form curling up into a small ball in his blanket. She sat by his side and put her hand on his head, brushing those silky golden locks with her fingers softly.

"Naruto." she whispered, her voice holding a hint of warmth and she saw him turning around and looking at her with those same innocent eyes that showed his still hurt expression. Maybe her grip was too hard on him? No, there were no marks on his neck and she had applied the minimal force so as to not hurt him. Those idiots from the Leaf had already done enough for the past few days as it is.

"What's wrong?" she asked blankly and his eyes were averted from her own making her frown. She put her finger on his cheek and turned his head to look at her.

"Did I hurt you?" she asked stoically making him look at her innocently. He nodded softly, catching her hand in his small hands making her frown.

"But I used minimal force..." she started but was cut off as his angelic soft voice left his lips.

"I didn't like it when you did that. It was like you didn't care for me." he whispered softly making her look at him surprised. Care?

"I don't care for you. You are just my partner and we have to tolerate each other, that's it. Nothing more, nothing less." she said making his eyes turn wide.

"But you said you were my friend." he said in a small voice making her about to retort but died down when she saw those shimmering eyes. She had said she was his friend, maybe she shouldn't be too forceful on him. For now at least.

"Yes, I am you friend. But you should listen to what I say the first time, I don't like it when people don't listen to me and it could get you hurt in the future." she said emotionlessly making him nod.

"I'm sorry. "He whispered not wanting to lose his first friend, burying his face in her stomach while she caressed the blonde boy gently out of instinct. She felt his soft breaths over her cloak and his warmth on her body making her lips twitch upwards. She ran her fingers through his hair making him snuggle in her embrace much to her amusement.

"Now will you sleep?" she asked softly brushing his hair and got a small nod from the boy on her lap but was surprised when his grip tightened on her as she tried to wriggle out of it.

"Please, stay." he whispered in her soft embrace making her raise an eyebrow. She was about to say no when she felt his breathing calm down to soft small breaths and looked down to see his peacefully smiling face.

He had fallen asleep. On her lap. And now she couldn't move.

It annoyed her to no end but she sighed and leaned her head back on the pillow for support and closed her eyes to have some sleep herself. She was trained to survive in the harshest of terrains, so sleeping in a half sitting state wouldn't be that difficult if it meant the small blonde ball of energy slept she mused and herself fell asleep, with her hand over his cheek.

* * *

 **Next Morning**

* * *

Naruto woke up with a small cute yawn, feeling himself sleeping on something so soft and something on his cheek that made him feel so safe. His eyes opened slowly to see him on a lap and turned his head upwards to see Izumi with her head a bit down so her loose bangs were covering her face a bit making him surprised.

" _She slept like that and stayed with me during the night. She stayed!"_ he thought in new found happiness. He had heard many children talk about how nice it felt to have someone sleep with you, it made you feel warm and safe. And he had to say they were right, it felt really nice to not sleep all alone for once in his life. He saw her sleeping soundly as if it was a normal day occurrence to sleep in a half seated state.

" _She must be uncomfortable..."_ he mused and sat up. He put his hand forward to make her sleep on the pillow comfortably without waking her up. But just as his hand made contact with the soft smooth skin of her cheek his wrist was caught in her hand in a split second with her half lidded yet fully alert onyx black eyes staring at him blankly. She let his wrist go a moment later, making him rub it a little. She had a really strong grip he mused as he felt the pain in it when she rubbed her eyes softly and cleared herself off sleep.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked blankly and he nodded with a bright smile.

"Hai, arigato for staying with me last night." he said happily getting a nod from the girl. She snapped her neck a bit to get the muscles working again and stood up.

"Freshen up, we leave in an hour." she said blankly and walked out to her own room to get ready. He just smile and went about to get ready happily. It was his first time going to explore anywhere outside his village and that too with a friend, he couldn't be more ecstatic. He put on the set of clothes Izumi had bought him yesterday and put on the cloak that he was itching to wear. He ran his hands through the dark fabric of the cloth and stood in front of the mirror proudly. He looked so cool, he thought in amazement and did a couple of poses.

Suddenly, he felt a presence behind him and saw Izumi standing there completely ready and blushed in embarrassment. He must have looked so stupid he mused and stood there not knowing what to say. Izumi watched in amusement at his slight blush and embarrassment and the way he was striking poses in his new found cloak.

"You look good in the cloak it suits you." she said stoically making Naruto beam happily. He grinned foxily and rubbed the back of his head making her lips twitch upwards yet again at his nervous tick.

"It's time for us to go, you have your ring don't you?" she asked getting a nod from the boy.

"Umm Izumi-chan, I don't have any spare clothes other than these. So what should I do?" he asked innocently getting a nod from the raven haired princess.

"You don't need anymore clothes like those anyways..." she said getting a lost look from the boy and continued. "... We will get you some shinobi clothes, those clothes won't last long in training anyways." she said getting a happy nod from the boy. He fell in step with her and both walked out the hallways of the tower as she put on a large straw hat and buttoned her cloak up to her mouth. She gave him the hat and he looked at the strange hat curiously. It even had some strange decorating things hanging from it!

"Wear it." she said stoically and he nodded wearing it while buttoning up the cloak just like she did to look like her. It concealed hi face completely except those wide baby blue that seemed to be roaming around everywhere, taking in the new sights. They kept up their trip for a couple of hours when Naruto saw the rain stop and wondered if they had cleared the Land of Rain already. His thoughts were confirmed when they entered the Land of River country to go to the hideout they had been assigned to go to when he spoke up the question that had been bothering him the past couple of days.

"Izumi-chan..." he said walking a bit closer to her to get her attention. She did nothing to make him think he had her attention but he could feel her listening to him so he continued.

"I can't talk to Kurama any longer. Do you know why that is or how I can talk to him again?" he asked curiously making her eyes turn to him. She had been expecting the question and knew the reason too. To access one's mindscape needed a lot of meditation and patience with training in it. Plus, they had sealed off his demonic chakra completely and cut all links to his bijuu until Pain was satisfied with his loyalty. But he didn't need to know that for now.

"To talk to the Kyuubi, you would need to access your mindscape..." she said stoically and saw his head tilt to the the side cutely making her know he had no idea what it was she was talking about.

"The place in your subconscious mind where you and the fox can talk..." she elaborated getting a happy nod from the child.

"Why didn't you say that earlier?" he asked innocently not noticing her eyes turning to him in an annoyed manner.

" _It isn't my fault you aren't intelligent enough to get complex explanations yet."_ she thought in annoyance but kept it to herself when she was broke out of it by another question.

"How can I access my mindscape then? I want to talk to Kurama." he asked curiously.

"You will need to be trained in it. To access one's subconscious is extremely rare except in your case due to dire circumstances..." she said while he looked down and caught her hand while she saw him look a bit frightened again.

" _It is bringing back the visions..."_ she thought and wrapped and arm around his shoulder and rubbed it to reassure him. He smiled and happily snuggled in her hug making her quite amused, he always seemed to do that.

"What do I need to do then?" he whispered softly due to their closeness and she pondered over it for a minute. She had once accessed her mindscape when she was twelve to train herself in versatility of her genjutsu, but young children had a hard time to maintain the focus required for it. It was only because his life was threatened that he had accessed communication with the fox, and befriended him which still baffled her to no end. The bloodthirsty lord of the bijuus who cursed the very existence of their species had befriended his own container no less. She turned her head a bit to see his head on her shoulder and leaned her cheek over it to feel his soft hair on her cheek.

"You will need to meditate and train in it. But it would take quite a bit of time for you to do so with the amounts of focus and patience it requires." she whispered stoically feeling his head move up and down on her cheek slowly figuring it to be a nod and watched as a small tea-shop came in her view.

"Let's stop here for breakfast, we haven't had anything yet." she whispered and felt another nod while she rubbed her cheek a bit over his head and parted. Instantly feeling the loss of his warmth her face marred a frown but she masked it in her usual stoic blank face and shrugged it off. They ate some rice-balls and had tea as Naruto kept some extra for the trip wrapped up in his cloak. She still felt her heart twist as he thanked the owner so politely and happily telling him how good it was to which they were quite embarrassed knowing how simple food they had served and gave him the parceled balls for free. She smiled at the effect his bright smile he had and he fell in step with her. She wanted to tell him she had some food pills in case for emergencies but let it slide and kept walking at a slow pace towards their hideout. They came up to a cliff and stood at it's edge when Naruto looked around quite confused.

"I think we are lost Izumi-chan there is nothing here." he said while she turned to him with a raised eyebrow, their hats off completely.

"That is where we need to go." she said pointing to the huge boulder on the edge of the river, down the cliff making Naruto completely baffled.

"It's a big rock." he said gazing at her curiously and got a nod while he nodded back hesitantly and was startled when he was picked up and put over her shoulder like a sack.

"Hold on tight." she whispered making him confused when much to his shock she jumped down.

"WHAT!" he shouted and gripped onto her waist for a grip and felt a little jerk making him open his tightly shut eyes to see water down and her feet.

Standing over it. She was standing on water. With him on her shoulder no less.

"You are standing on the water Izumi-chan! Sugoi!" he whispered as he watched it intently believing it to be some trick while her lips twitched upwards at his amazed voice from the little trick she did. But still he should have known that it was a low chunin level chakra control exercise, it was in the Academy when she was there after all. Even if only the theory was taught. But looks like he had skipped out that lecture.

"Will you teach me this jutsu too?" he asked curiously while she walked to the boulder with Naruto still slung over her shoulder.

"Yes." she answered simply and Naruto grinned. It would be so cool to run on water to escape someone. He would be untouchable he mused happily not knowing almost every shinobi, genin and up knew it too. She put her palm on the boulder and pumped a minuscule amount of chakra as the boulder shifted a bit to the side and they stepped in the hideout. She put him down as Naruto saw a huge cave and the boulder close from behind them. There was still a little sunshine from the cracks in the walls and he stiffened and stepped closer to her hearing a voice from inside the cave.

"So he sent you Uchiha-san." said a voice in a calm tone and Naruto saw a man come out from the darkness. His face was mostly covered with a scratched headband. His eyes were green with no pupils and he was quite tall from what he saw when his eyes landed on him and narrowed in on his form.

Kakuzu was quite surprised to see the boy wearing the Akatsuki robes and saw the ring on is finger making his eyes to widen ins hock.

"He is a part of the Akatsuki?" he asked incredulously pointing to the child and just got a nod from the Uchiha princess making him feel quite stupid now. Pain was hiring kids now? Maybe, he could be of some use he mused and crouched down in front of him while Naruto stepped closer to Izumi, completely unnerved by the undressing stare of the intimidating man. He saw him take out a piece of paper from behind him and handed it to him. Naruto took it and looked at the small slip of paper curiously, it was a piece of paper. He looked at the man and saw him look at him hopefully making him even more confused.

"Go on kid, channel some chakra into it." he said urging him to go on and Naruto looked at the paper and then back at the man and nodded not seeing any harm in it. Plus, he was tearing the same cloak as them meaning he was a part of Akatsuki too, so he could be trusted as a comrade in his eyes. He pumped up some chakra which was way to much than necessary due to his poor control and the paper glowed a bit from the overload of chakra and shredded itself into several pieces furiously making the man grin behind his mask.

"Wind." he said with a tone of mirth in his voice while Naruto looked up confused only to find Izumi's arm wrap around his stomach and jump back while throwing some fireballs at the incoming tendrils of... Hair?

Now hair was trying to pierce him? He mused as he saw the tendrils burn and Izumi landed on the ground and put him down. He blushed when he felt the soft form of her go away from his back and looked at her quite confused only to see her eyes red with three tomoes spinning in them furiously while she was glaring at the man in front of them. He saw the hair retreat back and torso of the man with several stitches to come into view making him feel a bit sick from the scene in front of him.

"What are you doing Kakuzu?" asked Izumi, her tone showing anything but amusement.

"I lost a heart in my last fight Izumi-san due to my idiotic partner when I went to collect the bounty of Ryuju Hakushi. I killed him but I need to replace my lost heart. The kid has a wind affinity which is what I need. I'm sure Pain won't mind finding another member after all he could help me." he said his greedy eyes looking at Naruto hungrily while he stepped back to feel Izumi's arms wrap around his shoulders from behind in a protective embrace making him melt in it and feel so safe. He felt her chin on his head and her voice cutting through the thick and heavy atmosphere like a hot sharpened knife through butter.

"You will not touch him. I'll kill you myself before Pain himself gets a chance to do it himself." she said stoically in a dead serious voice making Naruto shiver at the sheer coldness but feel happy she was protecting him. It was the first time someone had been so fierce in their protection towards him.

"Why so touchy with the kid Izumi-san? And pain wouldn't want to lose me over some brat like him. I don't know what he was thinking recruiting a child no less amongst us..." he was cut off when she spoke up.

"He would kill you if you lay so much as a finger on him rest assured. Though I would get rid of you first." she said coldly making him narrow his eyes. Pain would kill him, his finance shinobi over that brat?

"Why?" he asked seriously seeing the seriousness in those Sharingan eyes making her look at him with narrowed eyes.

"He is the Kyuubi jinchuriki." she said making his eyes to widen in horror. A jinchuriki was one of them now? No wonder Pain would kill him, she was absolutely right. But then...

"Then why are you so protective of him?" he asked curiously dropping his stance and put his cloak back on while she frowned wondering the same about the bot in her arms herself. Sure it was her duty to protect him but still it didn't feel right if anyone would hurt him.

"He is my partner." she said simply, deactivating her Sharingan making Kakuzu raise an eyebrow but then just shrugged and threw her a scroll that she caught and looked at the storage scroll and then back at him.

"That is the finance for the last three months that Pain asked for. I already took mine and my partners cut from it. Tell him I would need a new partner." he said and walked back into the cave while she simply nodded and felt the boy turn around in her arms and hug her.

"I don't like him, he's creepy." he whispered innocently making her lips twitch upwards in amusement. Well he was right to a certain extent.

"That he is." she said stoically brushing his locks as both walked out the base and back towards the open clearing they came from. She sat down on a log with Naruto sitting behind her and saw Naruto put the unwrapped rice-balls from earlier in front of her. She took one and he munched on one himself happily seeing the calm nature in front of them when Naruto looked at her slowly flowing hair in the breeze and looked down at his hands pondering seriously.

"Izumi-chan, I want to tell you a secret." he whispered making her look at him curiously.

"Please don't tell anyone alright?" he asked as she saw the pleading look in his eyes and the seriousness in his voice. She gave him a nod and watched his eyes turn back to his lap as he bit his lip and decided to pour his heart out for his friend with his secret.

"That night I met someone other than Kurama there too..." he whispered making her eyes widen in a rare occurrence as she gave him his rapt interest in intrigue as to the rare talk that interested her.

"Who did you meet?" she asked and he bit his lip when his heart pounded and he clutched his fist over his heart while his eyes shimmered in happiness.

"I met my father." he whispered making her eyes to widen again. He knew who his father was then? But then how? He was long dead or was it just a dream of his?

"I don't know if you'll believe it or not but the Yondaime Hokage was my father..." he whispered as a happy tear rolled down his eye and he gave her a smile making her smile herself. So it wasn't a dream then?

"I already knew that Naruto and I trust you when you say you met him, it is surely possible. You r secret is safe with me." she said stoically making his eyes to widen in shock. He had expected her to outright call him off or even laugh but she was expecting it? And she promised to keep it to herself.

Izumi was surprised when his small form crashed in her chest and wrapped himself up against her while she did the same with him and rubbed his back softly.

"Arigato." he whispered feeling so happy making her smile and bury her nose in his mop of silky hair while she closed her eyes. He really was intriguing to her, or she might have turned him to ashes with her **Amaterasu** or turned his mind to mush with her **Tsukoyomi** by now for just touching her. But she didn't mind it when it was him, though she wouldn't ever admit it and it was just because he was a little kid that she tolerated him enough. Yeah that was it and since he was a partner that was why she promised him she reassured herself and tightened her hug while he hugged her back happily. They stayed in the clearing while Naruto was happily humming to himself playing with the water as his feet were dipped into it and Izumi kept an eye on his happy form from afar. Though if one were to look closely a small pink dust covered her cheeks while her eyes held a little warmth in their gaze as they looked upon the back of the blonde sitting there unknown to herself.

* * *

 _ **Author's notes : There is the nest chapter. Sorry, the updates are so slow but even after having it written down already I didn't get the time to edit it and add some touches until now. But after a week I guess updates will go strong again so don't worry and none of the stories are dead so don't worry about that. Now, Naruto's training begins in the next chapter as he and Izumi get another new recruit for the Akatsuki and Naruto finds himself a new sensei. So keep guessing who it might be or who you'd like it to be from the ten members. Well until next time Ja Ne ;)**_

* * *

 _ **PS : If you do not like Naruto's or anyone's personality do not flame it. That is the way I see it and will take negative criticism happily but do not flame for some stupid reason with a guest account.**_


	4. Chapter 4 The Scorpion

**Naruto : Life in the Akatsuki**

* * *

 **Amegakure no sato**

* * *

 **God Tower**

* * *

Naruto walked through the rainy streets of the small hidden village having a happy smile plastered on his face. He was walking by the raven haired companion of his who was looking straight ahead with the same apathetic look as always. He was surprised when she put a hand on his shoulder making him stop and look at her curiously. She said nothing and pulled him by his arm into a small shop while he followed her without any questions.

He watched the various weapons and several other shinobi equipment, all looking in quite pristine condition as they shone under the light. He walked up to a shelf in a trance watching a high quality sword in quiet fascination as his hand moved to touch it on its own.

Naruto hadn't ever seen such a beautiful sword in his life. It had a silver flat blade and shone in an almost white silver color showing its workmanship. He saw the handle that had a white silk wrapped on it with several red marking on it. He narrowed his eyes at the hilt and read the Kanji for Iron on it. He saw it's sheath down below it that was white and had several blue flaming emblazonment on it. It was the most beautiful weapon he had seen in his life he thought in amazement.

Izumi's lips twitched upwards when she saw his childlike eyes looking at the sword as if it was made of gold but her lips thinned when his hand stopped and retreated while he stepped away from it as if it was poisoned.

She walked behind him and put her hand on his shoulder, surprising him but after a moment gave her a foxy grin that didn't fool her in the slightest.

"What's the matter?" she asked blankly making his grin die down and his gaze to travel to the sword and then to his feet.

"Nothing." he whispered making a small frown mar her face. She put her finger under his chin and brought those wide baby blue eyes to meet hers and pierced his soul with her gaze making him quite nervous.

"What's the matter?" she asked again, her voice showing he had to answer. She cupped his cheek with her soft hand when he tried to avert his eyes and kept his gaze onto hers.

"Nothing I just don't want to touch it." he said making her frown deepen. From his earlier gaze he was quite fascinated by it but now...

"Why?" she asked making his eyes roam here and there and look a bit scared when he saw the owner walking up to them with a smile on his face. The owner saw the conversation going on and decided to stay silent knowing her reputation very well by now.

"I don't want to ruin it..." he whispered surprising the two of them equally while his soft voice continued on. "…it looks expensive and no one ever let me touch things like that. I don't deserve it..." he was cut off when two small fingers were placed on his lips softly when he saw the angry eyes of the Uchiha princess making him bite his lip. He was right, he shouldn't have tried it and now she would...

His thoughts trailed off when he felt her thumb caress his whiskers softly making those shimmering orbs stare at the charcoal ones innocently. Her eyes turned to the owner who gulped from the emotionless stare and smiled at her while she stared at him blankly.

"Put that sword on my tab." she stated emotionlessly and the man was surprised but nodded happily and took the sword off the shelf along with the sheath and scurried off to the counter not wanting to aggravate her any further. Naruto was wide eyed and couldn't form any words when he was pulled by his hand towards the clothing section. She watched on amused as his wide childlike eyes wanted to question her but no words were coming out of his mouth.

"You need some shinobi clothes that will withstand the training you'll go through. Now do you have any preferences?" she asked stoically breaking him out of his stupor when his eyes saw the various clothes lined up in stacks on the shelves.

"Anything is fine as long as it is a bit comfortable to wear and move." he said scratching the back of his head sheepishly getting a nod from the girl when her eyes traveled through the collection there and stopped on a shelf picking up a white cut sleeves shirt with mesh armor lined beneath it for protection. She moved on picking up some blue ANBU cargo pants that allowed him free movement and had big pockets for scrolls and other things. She picked up a pair of blue shinobi sandals and blue finger-less gloves with metal back-plates for protection over them. She handed them to the boy who took them and watched them happily seeing how nice they felt.

She scooted him off to the changing room when he stopped suddenly at a jacket hanging to the side. It was a white jacket made out of high quality cotton but what intrigued him the most was it's design. It had blue flames on it's bottom and a high collar, it intrigued him because it looked just like the cloak his father wore. He watched her with pleading eyes and she followed his gaze and rose an eyebrow but nodded nonetheless making his small form crash into her chest and before she could do anything disappear into the changing room with the jacket along with him.

She smiled in amusement while the owned came with the sword now out of it's box and sheathed completely and handed it to her.

"There you go Uchiha-sama, it is the finest sword I have and quite possibly you'll find anywhere. It was forged in Tetsu no Kuni itself by their best forger. It was his last work and was a gift for my shop, but I can't see a better use for it than to be wielded by someone rather than hanging like a decoration item." he said while she took the sword and looked at it curiously. She clicked the blade open to see the small area of the shining metal and closed it back with a click nodding to herself. The kid had a great eye for things she mused when they saw the boy coming out of the changing room.

Both pairs of eyes turned to the boy who looked at them shyly wondering if he looked good. The owner grinned and gave him two thumbs up making him smile. Izumi stared at him in amazement, only a few years older and there would be almost no hiding who his parents were she mused and nodded making him beam happily and handed the sword to him which he took hesitantly. The owner of the shop smiled and crouched down to his eye level while keeping a hand on his shoulder. He was surprised when the boy flinched back from his touch and looked a bit frightened and wondered what it was.

"Do not touch him." he heard the stoic voice of the raven haired girl behind him making him gulp and nod. He smiled at the boy nervously who smiled back a bit sorry for that and moved by Izumi's side who took his sword and strapped it onto his back of the hip horizontally, hiding under his jacket. Naruto grinned happily as he saw how light and nice the sword felt on there while his fingers touched the hilt's soft cloth happily, oblivious to the world around him.

"Is there something else you might need Uchiha-sama?" asked the owner making her onyx black eyes turn to him and stare blankly. She nodded curtly and picked up a box containing twenty shurikens, kunais and a roll of ninja wire and a set of two leg holsters handing them to the man who sealed them up in a storage scroll and handed it back to her which she kept in her sleeve and turned with an amused expression at Naruto who was looking at himself in the mirror happily.

"Naruto let's go, we have to get back." she said stoically and turned to walk out when Naruto ran to her side and fell in step with her. He was surprised when he didn't see her pay for anything and looked back down to the door of the shop to see the owner going back to his counter happily making him quite confused. He tugged her sleeve cutely making her look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Izumi-chan you didn't pay for anything." he said and she nodded back with a small smirk.

"Have you seen me pay for anything here since tomorrow?" she asked stoically making him fall silent. He ran his mind and remembered he hadn't seen her pay for anything yet the people just always smiled and let them go happily.

"No." he said getting a nod from the girl while his eyes were glued onto hers curiously. Did this village give out things for free? As if reading his thoughts she spoke up.

"You don't have to pay for anything while we are in Ame. All Akatsuki members expenses will be handled by Pain and Konan so we need not think about it." she said while he looked at her surprised and nodded, holding the Akatsuki cloak in his hands. They walked in the tower and towards Pain's room to give him the scroll they retrieved from Kakuzu. They opened the doors to his room and stepped in to see the orange haired man standing there gazing out of the large window calmly.

"Mission has been completed." Izumi stated stoically getting a small nod from the man who crossed his hands behind his back, still not looking towards them. She kept the scroll on a small table to the side and stepped beside Naruto to await his response.

"Did you start his training yet Izumi?" he asked making Naruto glance at her nervously. He didn't want her to get in trouble because of him...

"No." she stated blankly while he stood there unmoving and gazing at the village with his purple eyes calmly.

"Why is that?" he asked stoically and she put her hand on the shoulder of the nervous boy to calm him down and avoid him to speak up in between. He took the hint and went silent with his defense for her dying as she turned her gaze to the leader of Akatsuki.

"I wanted to let him recover first from the events of the past few days." she said blankly while Pain understood the hidden meaning behind her words. His healing factor was disabled since he was under demonic suppression seals for the time being and said nothing for a few moments.

"I see..." he said calmly understanding her point though it still bothered him. He wanted him to come up to par as soon as possible with his plans for recruiting the rest of the members coming up.

"Is that all?" she asked stoically moving a lock of hair behind her hair while Naruto smiled a little looking down and caught her hand in his with a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks. She had lied for him. He wanted to see the outside world and was still feeling exhaustion so he had asked her for a break before they started training to which she had agreed surprisingly. She didn't give anything away as to she had noticed it except holding his hand back while keeping her eyes on the ripple eyed man.

"No there is a mission for you Izumi..." he said making her raise an eyebrow. He never gave out any mission back to back like this so it must be important she mused and stood silently awaiting the details.

"We will go and retrieve a new member to take the seventh ring of the Akatsuki." he said calmly surprising her with his words.

"We?" she asked curiously and he nodded turning around and turned his gaze to the blonde boy standing beside her. He rose an eyebrow seeing his new attire and nodded appreciatively. Now he looked like a serious shinobi not a child who was splaying ninja he mused and spoke up.

"Yes, I will be coming with you this time. We might have to do some _convincing_ for the person we are going to be meeting and I would like to see Naruto train too." he said getting a small smile from the blonde making Pain's lips twitch upwards though he masked it perfectly. Izumi frowned catching the hidden meaning behind his words, he wanted to see his potential and how he would fare with them. She nodded nonetheless and was about to turn around when Naruto spoke up.

"We are going to be getting a new member?" he asked innocently while the raven haired princess sighed inwardly. Pain though looked at the child in amusement, he was the only one who talked to him as if he was equal to him but still held that respect for him in his eyes which was what made him let his little actions slide. He walked up to him and crouched in front of him making Naruto look at him curiously awaiting his reply.

"Yes, Naruto we are going to be getting a new member. Why is there a problem?" he asked stoically while Naruto shook his head.

"No I just wanted to know how he was, I mean he isn't anything like the guy we met on our last mission is he?" he asked making the leader raise an eyebrow at his words. He turned his eyes to Izumi who understood what he wanted to ask and spoke up.

"He and Kakuzu had an interesting first meeting. He checked his affinity and tried to take his heart that he wanted to replace for the one he lost. Though I intervened, he told me to tell you he needed a new partner since he killed the last one." she said stoically making Pain frown. This was his third partner in six months and S-ranked missing nins with the potential he needed were hard to come by. He would need to find him a partner that would be hard to kill or get rid of him altogether. Though he didn't want to do that since he was pretty useful to him with his monetary links and bounty hunting skill as well as experience in the field. His thoughts were cut off once more by the happy blonde in front of him whose soft voice cut through the tense silence like hot knife through butter.

"He was really creepy with hair coming out of everywhere and had stitches everywhere. I don't like him at all Nagato-san." he said softly in his melodic voice making him look at him with a small smile this time that he didn't mask or try to hide.

"Is that right?" he asked in amusement making Naruto nod.

"Hai!" he squeaked out innocently making Izumi put her hand on his head and rub it softly. He really was something else to think he found him just creepy and not scared about the whole ordeal both mused.

"When do we leave?" asked Izumi making him turn his serious eyes to her and nod.

"We leave at dawn, get your rest especially you Naruto. We'll have you trained this time so we can't have you tired alright?" he asked getting a happy nod from the boy.

"Hai I'll train really hard I promise!" he said happily making Pain smirk while Izumi ruffled his hair to make the boy giggle happily.

"I expect nothing less, now off you go..." he said making a shooing motion to the door while Naruto ran pulling Izumi with him, giggling all the while. A small smile was fixed on the orange haired man's face when he thought of how lively the silent place had gotten over the past few days and tomorrow he would see what the heir to the royal family of his clan was capable of.

Meanwhile Naruto pulled Izumi with soft giggles towards his room getting incredulous stares from each and every guard who were praying for the happy child's safety from the 'Black Widow of the Leaf'. Naruto stopped as they reached the door to his room and opened it when he saw Izumi starting to walk towards her own room and caught her hand making her stop and look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You can sleep in my room." he said shyly making her eyebrow shoot up a little more.

"No you'll sleep alone from today on. Don't expect to be coddled with me anymore." she said blankly and frowned at the small hurt look in his eyes when he let her hand go and stepped inside his room muttering a soft 'good night' while clicking it close gently. She felt her heart clench though shrugged it off and moved to her own room. She took off her cloak and unhooked her equipment while stepping in for a shower and came out in her black thigh length night gown with the small Uchiha fan on the right side of her thigh. Her hair flowed across her face freely as she lay on her bed to get her proper rest and closed her eyes to sleep.

She flipped and turned for half an hour all the while her mind flashing her those hurt baby blue eyes she last saw and his small voice that he spoke with echoing in her mind. Her annoyed eyes snapped open and she sat up rubbing her temples while standing up and stepping out of her room.

" _What the hell is wrong with me?"_ she asked herself in irritation when she reached his room. Just the thought of him being hurt was taking off her sleep and she was getting annoyed to no end. She put her hand on the doorknob to his room but stopped when she heard the small sniffles from inside the room making her Sharingan blaze to life in anger. The person who was making a move on him had some nerve she thought opening the door and seeing no one except the small trembling form of the blonde wrapped up in his blanket making her eyes return to normal.

She walked to his side while sitting softly so as to nor wake him up as her sharp eyes saw the small drops leaking down his sleeping face while he was muttering something softly in sniffles.

"Please no more, I didn't hurt anyone... Please..." she heard and understood he was having flashbacks of the last tragedy he endured. He didn't have any such visions for the past days but then she remembered what was different all those times.

" _I was close to him while he slept each time. So that was why he..."_ her thoughts trailed off as she realized the reason he had asked her to stay in his room. She slid herself in his blanket and pulled his small form to her chest, mushing her breast into his back while he was scooped up in her embrace. She nuzzled her nose in the back of his hair to take in the soft scent of his hair that smelled so much like the fresh dew that she loved so much.

"Shh, sleep now..." she whispered softly making his sniffles die down while he snuggled back and wrapped his arms around her own slender ones that were around his stomach. She was doing it just because she wanted him to be fresh and ready for the next day in his training and mission. Yeah that was it otherwise she didn't care in the slightest what happened to him she thought and closed her eyes to fall into slumber herself.

* * *

 **Next Morning**

* * *

The little rays of sunlight through the dark clouds came in through the window making Naruto bury his face into the warm thing he was cuddled up against.

Wait... Warm thing?!

His baby blue eyes snapped open when he saw the silky raven hair sprawled across the face of his best friend while she slept with slow calm breaths. He smiled and snuggled into her neck happily while Izumi smirked as she broke her slumber from his slight movement and tightened her hold on him involuntarily. She opened her eyes with a slight flutter to feel the soft blonde hair against her nose which she nuzzled into and rubbed them gently.

"Arigato." she heard the soft whisper from the blonde and said nothing while she kept rubbing his hair softly. They really were untamed yet extremely soft she mused while running her fingers through them. Naruto felt so happy that she was there with him. He had just a small nightmare but a nice sleep when she must have come to him. He could always rely on her he mused and pressed his lips on her neck softly in gratitude. Her eyes widened when she felt his small kiss and soft lips on her sensitive neck as she gaze into his eyes that weren't looking into hers from embarrassment.

"That was for caring for me. You're my best friend Izumi-chan." he spoke softly in a shy voice making her purse her lips. She just couldn't understand him in the slightest. Didn't she let him know how she felt for him last night with her words? And how could he consider her like that? She ran her finger on one of his whiskers while wondering what it was she considered him. Naruto giggled feeling her finger over his sensitive birthmarks while he purred slightly like a kit making her smile.

"What am I to you Naruto?" she asked softly in a questioning tone while he looked at her surprised not expecting that. But he didn't need to think about that for even a moment and answered instantly.

"You are my most special person Izumi-chan. I'll do anything for you I promise." he said happily in a voice so determined it made her eyes widen slightly. A moment later they narrowed in on him in annoyance.

"Do not speak like you know me Naruto and don't say things you can't do." she said blankly making him look at her surprised.

"But I was telling you the truth. And I know what I need to know, you are a good person Izumi-chan." he said happily making her annoyance increase with each word.

"You don't know me one bit." she said surprising him and continued on. "You remember your classmate Sasuke in the Academy?" she asked stoically and he nodded wondering how she knew him.

"He was my brother." she said stoically making him shocked to the core. " But his whole clan died from what I heard..." he was cut off by her voice. She was getting annoyed and it was time for him to realize who and what she was.

"They did..." she said and he was about to say that she was here when she continued. "…because I was the one that killed them all that night." she said blankly without an ounce of regret or any emotion making his heart drop in shock. She smirked when she saw his expression of disbelief and fear. Now he knew...

Her thoughts trailed off when she felt his hand on her cheek making him look into those shimmering eyes that looked so sad that it made her stomach churn.

"Why did you do it?" he asked softly making her eyes widen in shock. No one had ever asked her that. They all just ran off scared when they realized who she was and what she had committed. But he wanted to know about her reasons...

Her thoughts trailed off when her stoic mask was back on to cover up each and every emotion while she threw the blanket off and stood up to walk towards the door.

"I did it on a whim, just felt like eradicating those flies under my feet and make them know how pathetic they were..." she was cut off by the soft voice of the blonde.

"You lie..." he spoke making her stop dead in her tracks. She turned around to see his sad smile and those eyes...

They held an expression that made her furious to no end.

Sympathy.

"I am telling you.…" she was cut off yet again when he shook his head with that same small smile.

"I may not be that smart but I know all about masks, you are hurting inside.…" his voice was cut off with a cough when she had him in a choke hold with her Sharingan eyes glaring at him angrily.

"Shut up..." she whispered dangerously while he wheezed out a small cough making her tighten her hold to snap his neck in an instant. Though her eyes widened when she saw his small hand reach for her cheek and rub it softly as if to sooth her own pain ignoring his own and his soft smile. A small wet drop rolled down her eye that she didn't even notice when she loosened her hold on him and saw him cough violently with the marks of her fingers on his neck showing how close she had been to snapping it.

She realized what she was about to do and how close she was to ending his life. Her heart clenched when she thought of what it would have meant. She turned around and walked to the door to go to her room when she spoke up.

"Get ready, we leave in an hour." she said stoically and was about to step out when she heard his soft voice with a small cough speak up.

"I'll be there for you just like you are for me Izumi-chan. You don't have to hurt alone, I'll share it with you." he said softly making her clench the door handle while it buckled under pressure and she walked out closing it behind her softly with a click without another word.

An hour later Pain and Izumi stood by the gate of the tower calmly while they waited for the third person of their party to come. Pain saw how she was quite agitated with her eyes darting around and glaring like the Shinigami at the guards who patrolled the tower and had the balls to meet her eyes. He didn't ponder much on it when he heard a pair of footsteps running towards the. He saw the blonde he was waiting for coming to them happily with his cloak on and his hat by his side while it was buttoned up to his nose to hide the marks on his neck completely.

He saw Izumi stiffening and averting her gaze slightly when he came as if she had done something bad to him. He narrowed his eyes but let it go when he saw Naruto take his side beside her and smile at him like his usual self assuring him everything was alright.

"Let's go Nagato-san!" he chirped happily while the man nodded and started walking with Naruto catching her hand and pulling her where he was going with a smile. She didn't understand why he was acting like nothing had happened at all in the morning. She glanced at his smiling face looking onto the back of the Akatsuki leader and taking in the surroundings so curiously with guilt in her heart. She clutched his hand slightly making him look at her and give her a heart warming smile. The feeling increased tenfold making her avert her eyes when she heard his soft whisper.

"It's alright." he said softly out of Pain's earshot making her look at him surprised and nod curtly while pursing her lips. She felt light now and gave his hand a small squeeze while they walked forward when he spoke up yet again.

"Ne Nagato-san?" he called out making the leader of the Akatsuki look at him questionably to which he didn't pay much attention and continued on his curiosity.

"Where are we going?" he asked making the man fall silent. He wanted to say no and be done but knew the kid was too curious for his own good while sighing inwardly. If he didn't let up on his name then there was no way he would let up on this and decided to answer him.

"Land of Wind." he said simply getting a nod from Naruto. A moment later he heard another question making him sigh. This was going to be a long trip he mused answering his questions about the terrains of the Land and they kept walking calmly with this small talk going on.

A few hours later when they were on the borders of Fire and Grass they stopped at a clearing while Izumi decided to give him something to train in now.

"Naruto." she called out monotonously making him look at her curiously.

"What have you learnt in the Academy up until now?" she asked stoically making Naruto nod. So they were starting his training he mused with a smile.

"Well we have unlocked our chakras. Then they showed us how to throw kunais and shurikens and Iruka-sensei started us on the three basic Academy jutsus. I can do the **Henge** and **Kawarimi** but the **Clone Jutsu** trips me up every time." he said with a cute pout making the two of them smile softly at his innocent answer. She nodded and took out the storage scroll containing the leg holsters for him and threw the unsealed items towards him which he caught nicely. Pain sat to the side while he wrapped up the bandages to hold the holsters on both his thighs.

"Alright now your target is this..." she said flicking out a bunch of shuriken in a split second and threw them towards the tree forming a metallic bulls eye from it while Naruto was amazed at the speed and perfection with which she executed it. He didn't even see her take out the weapons let alone throw them and all that without even taking her eyes off him.

"Sugoi you're amazing Izumi-chan but I'll do better than you..." he said taking out his own kunais, one in each hand and aimed it at the bulls eye to hit it in the third ring both times making the two Akatsuki members watching frown. There was absolutely no technique behind it and he was handling them as if he was a civilian not a shinobi.

"Naruto this is no time for games, throw them with the right technique. Do not waste your time." Pain said from the sidelines making Naruto look a bit ashamed and nod. He did it again with the same way making their frown to deepen. Before Pain could reprimand him Izumi spoke up.

"Naruto why aren't you using the technique the Academy taught you?" she asked seeing how he was throwing them like balls with no movements of joints or fingers whatsoever and was using brute force to compensate the lack of technique. Naruto though tilted his head to the side cutely and looked at her as if she was the one who was stupid.

"But that is how they showed me and I've been improving on it for two years now. But these new weapons are much nicer than the Academy one you know, I could never go past the fourth ring before." he said happily looking at the shining kunai while the two scowled in annoyance.

" _Those idiots, no wonder why he was the dead last. If no one teaches him anything right, how could a student learn?"_ both thought at the same time when Izumi walked up to him and turned him around pulling his back to her front and caught his arm and wrist with her hands.

"Naruto whatever they showed you at the Academy wasn't right. Now do what I say alright?" she asked stoically and he nodded simply, trusting her and she showed him the perfect movements and technique while twisting his joints and fingers to show him how it was done. He went on for some tried and an hour later the results were there. His aim was still a couple of inches off but the weapons were going at blinding speeds with whistling sounds behind them and burying into the tree with loud thumps quite deeply. He grinned foxily seeing the results flow while Pain smirked at seeing the improvements in such a short amount of time. He had as much potential as he expected he mused seeing him going on determined to succeed with that same Uzumaki stubbornness their clan was so famous for.

He watched him go on for another hour when he saw him out of breath and his hands turned a bit red. He decided it was enough since they still had to go towards their destination and he needed him to be able to walk all the way by himself and stood up while walking to Izumi who was standing behind him watching his progress like a hawk and pointing out even the slightest of mistakes in his technique or executions.

"Alright that is enough for today." he said making the boy stop and the girl to turn to him with a nod. Now he just had one thing to see.

"Naruto there is one thing I would like to see from you now before we leave." he said while the boy nodded and awaited his request curiously. Izumi though wondered what it was that he wanted to see when he stated his demand.

"Naruto you do know how to focus your chakra right?" he asked getting a nod from the boy. It was the hardest thing for him in the Academy but he had done that stupid leaf exercise after a lot of failures and ripped up leaves later.

"Now I want you to focus your chakra towards your left eye solely." he said making Naruto tilt his head to the side cutely.

"Why is that Nagato-san?" he asked innocently while the man sighed. His questions seemed never ending and he always tested his patience.

"I want to see something now do as I say." he said commandingly and Naruto glanced at Izumi who nodded making him smile and nod. He held a half ram seal and focused on the warm pull in his tummy. He did it just like the Leaf exercise just instead of the forehead he focused it on his left eye and felt a soft tingling in it making it slightly weird and sensed his chakra now being pulled into it constantly, surprising him. He opened his eyes while Pain saw his left eye turn blood red with the same ripple pattern as his with three tomoes in its first ring.

Pain watched in fascination at the power that eye was exuding with his massive reserves powering it up. Naruto though felt slightly weird and scared. He could see strange blue lines all across Izumi and Nagato with his vision now really sharp and crisp when he focused on his left eye solely to see. He gazed into the blade of his kunai to see his mismatched eyes making his eyes widen in horror as he saw his eye was now completely red and clutched it with a scared face.

"My eye is bleeding!" he whimpered making the two of them turn surprised at his exclamation. Izumi heard his soft whimper and the tear that rolled down his uncovered eye making her frown.

"Naruto?!" she called out to him softly and motioned for him to come to her when he rushed past Pain and straight into her chest while clutching his eye all the time. She brushed his hair with a soft smile and cradled the boy gently to cease his whimpers.

"Izumi-chan my eye it's..." he was cut off by her voice.

"It's fine Naruto." she whispered making his shimmering orbs look at her with a small sniffle while he pulled his hand down slowly and cupped his left cheek while wiping the wet cheek with her thumb.

"B-But..." he sniffled but was shushed up when she placed her fingers on his lips with a small smile gracing her lips.

"It's perfectly fine. It doesn't hurt does it?" she stated more than ask while he just gave a tiny nod back.

"Your eye is special Naruto..." said Pain making the boy turn to him while Izumi wrapped him up from behind in her arms protectively making him snuggle in her embrace. He gazed into the slowly circling tomoes while still feeling the raw power the eye was radiating. Izumi was right, that kekkei genkai was powerful he mused seeing how powerful a future ally he would be for them.

"What do you see from it?" he asked curiously wanting to understand it's abilities while Naruto closed his right one to focus on it and spoke up.

"Well I can see some strange blue lines with small dots all inside your body. It's quite strange, though yours has a lot more blue in it that Izumi-chan's..." he said making Pain nod i with a smile. So he could see the chakra network just like the Byakugan? Now that would be quite a useful ability though he trailed off when he saw Naruto's lone eye narrow slightly above his head.

"There is something strange..." he whispered making Izumi quite curious when she pulled him closer and kept her chin on his head.

"What's strange?" she asked softly while he just kept staring at the same spot.

"There's a strange line coming from Nagato-san's head back towards where we came from..." he saw making Pain's eye to widen in shock and horror.

" _He can see my chakra link to my Deva Path all the way out here. But that is impossible, not even the Byakugan picks up on such slight network of chakra!"_ he thought in shock seeing Naruto now giggling happily while Izumi was flicking his ear with her nose playfully. Izumi knew about his paths having deduced what they were when she joined and was with them for the first six months. There wasn't any chance that there could be six Rinnegan holders so she had asked him to which he had said that one of the was real while the rest were merely his puppets. It was quite a useful ability in her opinion and she was still deciphering the various abilities of the Rinnegan slowly and this gave her a new lead she mused when she heard Pain's voice.

"Naruto..." he said in a rarely seen much too serious voice making the fall silent and look at him.

"You are never to speak about what you just saw to anyone but me and Izumi alright?" he stated in a matter of fact tone making Izumi smirk. So he was scared that Naruto would let his secret out now wasn't he? She mused in amusement and felt Naruto's head bob up and down happily seeing no problem with it under her chin.

"Alright then let's head out, we need to be at our target's location in exactly two days or we'll miss him." he said walking out of the clearing and the two followed him closely while Izumi questioned him more about his eye and told him to keep it active for some time to see for how long he could keep using it and get used to it a bit more.

* * *

 **Two Days later...**

* * *

 **Land of Wind**

* * *

Three figures walked through the sandy dunes of the famous deserts of Wind country. Two of them were walking in their cloaks with their hats shadowing them from the scorching sun and heat of the desert. The third however had his cloak slung on his shoulder along with his jacket while he wore the hat for some shade from the heat.

"Naruto those cloaks are not only for identification purposes but for concealing yourself as well..." said Pain explaining it calmly as he glanced to the side at the sweating Naruto who pouted cutely much to the amusement of the Uchiha princess.

"But it's so hot and this cloak is black. I don't even want to wear my jacket and that is white." he said pointing to the jacket slung on his shoulder. The orange haired man sighed and shook his head in exasperation knowing his answer was going to be something like that and let him be. At least he was wearing his hat which concealed his hair and shadowed his whiskered face he thought convincing himself when he heard the blonde speak once more.

"So are we there yet?" he asked innocently making the leader sigh yet again. He was sighing a lot ever since the blonde had become a part of his organization he mused and looked at him in slight annoyance that the blonde paid no heed to adding to his irritation like always.

"Yes Naruto we are almost there." he said holding back his annoyance. He too was irritated especially from the flying sand here along with the ridiculous heat and looked ahead to see a small village come into view. Both Izumi and Pain narrowed their eyes when they saw some smoke coming from many places in the village but kept walking towards it while nodding to each other. Naruto spun the kunai in his finger to pass his his time when his gaze narrowed in on the horizon. He channeled chakra to his left eye while it bled scarlet behind his hat and caught sight of a silhouette walking straight towards them.

"Someone is coming towards us." he pointed to the direction in front of him, surprising the other too who after a few moments caught sight of the figure themselves. Pain smirked when he saw the man he was looking for coming straight towards them. Izumi smirked underneath her attire as the blonde had taken her teaching to stay alert for any presences and had seen him before the either of them.

Naruto saw the man coming towards them and noticed he was quite young maybe a couple of years older than Izumi if his face was any indication. Though his Rinne-Sharingan caught sight of something unusual making him narrow his eyes on the man. He tugged on the sleeve of Izumi making her look at him curiously while he kept his eyes on the red haired man in front of them.

"Izumi-chan that man is strange." he whispered out of the man who now stood in front of them. She was intrigued at his words and stood silent to let him continue on which he understood quite clearly.

"You told me that a person's chakra network remains mostly the same but his is... Different." he whispered making her eyes to narrow in on the man wearing a Suna jounin flak jacket and uniform with several small scrolls tied on his back who was staring at them emotionlessly.

"How so?" she whispered while Pain walked up to start his conversation with him.

"Almost all his chakra is coming out of a cylindrical source in his chest instead of near his stomach like everyone else. And his network isn't all jumbled up but like it was made quite..." he whispered struggling to find the word which Izumi guessed.

"Systematically?" she asked and got a nod from the boy and she nodded back understanding everything now and pulled him behind her slightly while Pain spoke up.

"Akasuna no Sasori, we have have a proposal for you." he said calmly while the man stood staring at the three blankly without so much as a twitch in his muscles to show he had heard them.

"Not interested." he said dismissively making Pain narrow his eyes on him and continued on unfazed by his answer.

"I would like for you to join us. Your skills will prove useful to us and you yourself will be gaining quite a bit from it." he said calmly making Sasori a bit curious at his words.

"How so?" he asked in his same dead tone while Pain continued on.

"You are being hunted down by hunter-nins of several countries including two major ones such as the Water and the Wind where we currently stand. Join us and I guarantee you that you can do whatever you wish without any distractions." he said making Sasori's curiosity to increase. Those hunter-nins were an annoyance he mused as he thought of how they always distracted him from the various things he did . He turned his gaze to the two standing behind him when he caught sight of Izumi's face making him narrow his eyes at her.

"Izumi Uchiha the 'Black Widow of Konoha'. I am surprised you decided to follow someone knowing your reputation." he said blankly while she stood there with her own stoic mask letting off no emotions and pulled the locks of hair coming to her face back with her hand.

"I had nothing else to do and their plans intrigued me." she said simply while the man narrowed his eyes at the blonde behind her.

"So you expect me to join the organization that hires academy students?" he asked sarcastically making Pain narrow his eyes at the insult while Izumi was annoyed when she saw the blonde look a bit ashamed for getting them insulted because of him. "No thank you but I am fine on my own. Now leave before I decide to take you in for my next batch of human puppets like that pathetic village I just raided." he said in his dead voice making Naruto's eyes widen when he gazed behind him to see the village in ruins. He had destroyed it just for making puppets? He thought in shock while the other two stood unfazed by his threat.

"I wasn't requesting Sasori, I am a God and a God gets what he wants. If you don't come willingly then we have other ways to convince you too." he said calmly as if reading a weather report while a ghost of a smile grazed Sasori's dead features.

"So you wish o fight me? Very well then, I will take your corpse and add that to my collection especially Izumi's. The Sharingan is quite a rare sight these days." he said pulling out a scroll from behind him when Naruto watched him unroll it with a flick of his fingers and pumped his chakra into it causing a puff of smoke when Naruto gazed at an interesting site. There was a puppet now standing in front of Sasori. But the puppet creeped him out quite a bit since it almost looked human and to top it off it had a normal chakra network which meant...

"You created puppet out of humans, that's what your human puppet mean doesn't it?" he whispered making Sasori surprised at the little boy's deduction of his skills in a mere glance and nodded.

"Yes, I am surprised you figured it out so quickly but you look like a sharp one. Yes this is my art and after I'm done with you you'll join my collection too." he said calmly making Naruto surprised at his words. Izumi saw his hesitance when he tried to look away and put a hand on his shoulder making him look at her with his innocent eyes.

"Do not look away Naruto for that is the shinobi world. This isn't the slightest bit gruesome as to what shinobi do on a day to day basis. Keep your eyes on the enemy, a mere glance could get you killed in combat. Observe the battle and deduce strategies from it, they will help you in the future." she said stoically making him understand the true profanities of the shinobi world. He just nodded nervously, gazing at the face of the puppet and started thinking about her words when he heard Pain speak up.

"So that is your answer then, very well come at me and I'll show you the true power of a God." he said calmly making Sasori get ready when he flicked his fingers and Naruto saw threads made out of pure chakra come out from the tips of Sasori's fingers and attach themselves to the puppet. He saw the puppet which was built like it was almost alive but was surprised when it opened it's mouth and Sasori gazed at Pain with his dead eyes.

" **Puppet Art : Flame Destroyer!"** he spoke calmly as Naruto watched a huge stream of flames go towards Pain. He was shocked when Pain was not even making a move to dodge and tried to run but Izumi caught his shoulder and wrapped her arms from behind him protectively.

"Do not try and interfere Naruto, just watch." she whispered activating her Sharingan to observe the fight when Naruto saw Pain raise his hand and much to his amazement it looked as if it flicked the flames with his palm like it was nothing. He kept his palm up and whispered tow words which Naruto caught.

" **Bansho Ten'in!"** he heard as he saw Sasori's puppet getting sucked towards Pain's palm like it was commanding it and Pain caught the puppets neck and squeezed it to destroy it's head from it's neck along with the annoying flame thrower. Sasori though smirked.

"Wrong move." he whispered when the chest cavity of the puppet opened and several senbons laced with Sasori's deadly poisons launched themselves at Pain who looked at the annoyances with narrowed eyes.

" **Shinra Tensei!"** he whispered when Naruto saw a pulse of chakra and suddenly everything around the pulse was destroyed into dust. Sasori was wide eyed at the destruction of his puppet. Not that he cared if it was destroyed or not, he had seemingly hundreds more but the man hadn't even moved and looked like he was a mere fly in his eyes that he could squat in a second. He narrowed his eyes and decided it was time to pull out all the stops.

"Alright I thought you were a weakling but it seems you fools do have some skills, let me put you in your place then." he said taking out another scroll from his back and flicked it open, pumping chakra into it summoning another puppet. Izumi's eyes widened in surprise when she gazed at the face of the puppet and smirked. Naruto saw the puppet with dark blue hair shaggy hair and narrow yellow eyes. He still couldn't fathom the thought that this was a living person at one time but watched the fight like Izumi said while putting his hand over hers for assurance.

"Well well aren't you full of surprises. So that is what happened to the mysterious disappearance of the Sandaime Kazekage huh?" asked Izumi in amusement while Naruto's eyes widened in shock. This was the Sandaime Kazekage? He thought in shock as he watched Sasori not denying it and Pain standing calmly in front f him. But from what he had read in the Academy the Sandaime died a long time ago then how did he get his body to make a puppet from him he thought in a confused manner. Sasori though smirked in pride at his favorite puppet being recognized. Now the fools would know just how outclassed they were.

"Now I'll show yo just who you're dealing with." he said stoically, flicking his fingers to attach the chakra threads to the puppet which cackled with wood like noises and moved in front of Sasori with it's arms stretched forward. Naruto saw strange black sand and caught the sand was laced with chakra from the puppet with his left eye while the sand swirled around the puppet.

"That is the Sandaime Kazekage's feared kekkei genkai Naruto, the Iron Sand. It was the reason why he is still hailed as the strongest shinobi to ever live in the hidden sand village." spoke Izumi watching the fight in interest while Naruto turned his head up to meet her eyes and asked.

"Then shouldn't we go and help Nagato-san, I mean that puppet is using the Iron Sand and that man must've killed him to acquire the body meaning he is quite strong too." he asked curiously making Izumi smile and nuzzle her nose in his hair while turning his gaze to the fight.

"There is no need, I don't think Pain would appreciate me trying to interfere in his fight." she said stoically while Naruto was still concerned about him when he heard Pain's calm voice.

"Just watch Naruto while I show him the true power of a God." he said calmly making Naruto nod as he saw Sasori smirk and move his fingers. The puppet launched itself towards Pain with two blades made from his Iron sand coming into his hand that he swiped in a 'X' formation to cleave him. Pain took out a couple of black rods from the sleeves of his cloak and blocked the blades while side stepping them and launched himself to the puppet master. He cut the strings with his rods that absorbed the chakra as soon as they touched them making the puppet fall to the ground lifelessly. Sasori cursed and jumped back flicking his fingers to create new thread that attached to the puppet and it launched itself at Pain who dodged to the side and his attack was stopped mid way.

" **Iron Sand : Gathering Assault!"** he whispered making the black sand around the puppet to collect itself and form a large prism over it's head while Sasori decided to end it. He flicked his fingers and launched the prism on top of the unexpected leader. Pain let out a small burst of his gravity manipulation to let the prism glance at his side and tear a small part of his cloak while a little scratch was now on his arm.

"You are done, a mere scratch is enough for you to die with it. The Iron sand is laced with my most lethal poison, you'll drop dead in a few moments. Say your last words." he said while Pain tore off the right sleeve of his torn cloak and threw it aside as he watched Sasori in irritation.

"You cannot kill a God fool, now it is time I end this little fiasco once and for all." he said calmly making Sasori's eyes to narrow at the orange haired man in shock.

" _Why isn't he dead? My poisons are almost instantaneous and that was the most lethal one. I made a clean cut. How is he still standing let alone fighting?"_ he thought in shock when Naruto saw Pain lift off the ground a few feet and levitate in the air as his cold gaze sat on Sasori who was readying his puppet for a defensive attack. Pain put both his palms forward and started gathering a huge amount of chakra in them.

" **Shinra Tensei!"** he spoke again but Naruto saw pulse was huge this time and started obliterating everything in it's path while moving towards its target. Sasori flicked his fingers and formed a shield from his Iron Sand but the power behind Pain's attack was too much. He was blown back from the immense pressure along with his puppet as the shield fell from his lack of concentration and he was launched back many meters away like a rag doll.

" **Bansho Ten'in!"** he spoke and pulled Sasori towards him who completely not expecting that was pulled towards the Akatsuki leader in mid air in a choke hold by his neck. Pain narrowed his eyes when he felt his neck under his hand and smirked.

"You really are a master puppeteer, to think you went so far as to this." he said while Sasori glared at him but said nothing as his secret was out for the first time and Pain continued.

"So now are you willing to join us?" he asked calmly making Sasori narrow his eyes at him.

"You leave me little choice otherwise so I will have to say yes, what is the name of this organization of yours anyways?" he asked stoically making Pain smirk at his acceptance.

"Welcome to the Akatsuki then." he said while Sasori nodded and spoke up.

"I have some conditions I would like to ask beforehand." he said making the Rinnegan wielder listen to him calmly.

"I won't answer to anyone beside you. You offer me protection to which in turn I offer you my aid. But third and the most important condition, what I do in my free time is none of anyone's business." he spoke while Pain nodded agreeing with them.

"Your terms are acceptable, as long as none of your activities cause any distractions in our goals and tasks you are free to do as you wish." he said and dropped the man to the ground unceremoniously. Sasori landed on the ground in a cloud of dust and cursed them man inwardly who landed slowly and walked to the other two standing on the side. Sasori sealed up his Kazekage puppet when he saw Naruto walk up to him a bit nervously and put his hands forward that held the same cloak that the three were wearing. He watched his own battered clothes and took it without a word putting it on while he strapped the scroll on his back.

" _I can't believe he just decimated my most powerful attacks with only a couple of techniques! Are all the members in this Akatsuki freaks like him and that Uchiha?"_ he thought walking to them when his gaze landed on the blonde and fell in thought as he watched the happy blue eyed blonde walking with Izumi, a smile plastered on his face. He shrugged off his thoughts however and walked silently with them putting on his new ring handed to him by Pain. As long as his terms were accepted he had no qualms with this organization and stuff. He just wanted to concentrate on refining his art more. Nothing more, nothing less.

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 _ **Author's notes : There is the next chapter. So Sasori joins up the organization with Naruto starting on his training with them. A little slow chapter but hey not everything moves at fast speeds you know. Well as for any personality quirks you don't like please don't flame it because of that. It is how it is and you will have to read it if you like it. So my exams are done and the updates are back on track. Until next time, keep reading and reviewing Ja Ne ;)**_

 _ **PS : Next update will be for Tobirama's Heir and quite soon so leave your reviews. They are what keep the authors going and don't take much time. ;)**_


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